Too Deep
by Magnus McKay
Summary: The Crew of Serenity are used to getting screwed over and normally they can take it on the chin, moving on to the next job. But when River Tam is kidnapped from the ship right under their noses, its time for the Crew to step up and rescue her. After all, they're all just screaming at the dark together...
1. Prologue

The Academy was in deep turmoil. Never in its history had it faced such a fearful future and all because of one little girl and the secrets contained within her extraordinary brain. Secrets that could put not just the facility in danger but also upset the knife edge balance of the entire 'Verse.

With the escape of River Tam, they had to rethink their whole security system and screening process. It had been almost six months since her brother - a respectable doctor on Osiris that could have had great prospects in his chosen field - had just walked in, poached her right from under the Alliances nose, and disappeared into the ether. He'd thrown everything away, his entire life and even his family to take his sister from the Academy because of a few silly childish letters she had sent him that informed him that she was being hurt.

If they'd had a chance to talk to him in a professional capacity, they would have explained to him that the tests they did were necessary to make River into everything that she could be. To make her into the perfect evolution of the human. That was all they were trying to do, they were innocent in all of this. Of course the brother would then have spent the rest of his natural life on a prison moon on the raggedy edge. That sort of information was best left unknown by the general public.

It had taken millions just to keep the breakout under the radar and further millions of the tax payers money to increase the security mainframe. They had to take out new precautions, if the Academy was seen as weak, the Alliance was seen as weak and now was not the time for weakness. Not with the fine line they walked on with the Boarder worlds.

But what had happened? The Head of the Academy, under pressure from the share-holders and in their desperate need to find the girl, sent out a message on the Cortex that the girl and her brother were wanted fugitives, that she'd escaped from a Alliance Secure Base. What had they got back? Very little it seemed.

They had spent almost six months looking for the boys conspirators eager to find out how such a breech of security had come to pass. But every lead they had came up a blank. It seemed that they had disappeared without a trace, just like their young prodigy. They were like a wisp of smoke blown away into the depths of the chaotic maelstrom which was the 'Verse.

That wasn't the only issue they had. River Tam had been their star… 'Pupil', and with her gone that meant a cut in their expenditure, which in turn meant a cut in Government coin and job losses in every department. The money that was safeguarded before the escape went on the new Security System, leaving them with little monetary funds left for the remainder of the year. Things were getting desperate.

They knew that there had been a number of sightings of both the Tam's on a Firefly Class transport ship. The ship was never in one place too long keeping to the backwater moons and never straying too close to the core worlds. The ID number and name of the ship, 'The Happy Trader', came up as a blank as all ships that dealt on the black market usually did. Even the name they had, 'Captain Harbatkin', was a fake name made up by the real owner of the ship, a man who remained a ghost to them.

The boy was not an issue, he was just a third party in all of this, along with the crew of that vessel. Admittedly, if he was caught he would spend the rest of his natural life imprisoned for crimes against the Alliance but it wasn't imperative that he was captured. The crew of the ship needn't be harmed in the end, but if they got in the way… well, that would be just an unfortunate accident. If harm came to the girl in any way, there could be serious repercussions.

Then again there was much more of a chance of people getting hurt by her. She was after all very much the perfect weapon in the shape of a 16 year old girl. If that weapon, no matter of it's shape, fell into the hands of the Independents then the Alliance would be at a serious disadvantage. There was no denying that the girl was a threat to the fine balance of the Alliance controlled systems and the Underground Independent Loyalists. She was the tipping point, the key variable and under the right conditions, the unstoppable force.

The things that she had locked inside her head, the things that they had inadvertently put there, the things she had found out. She was a walking time bomb. It would only be a matter of time until she understood her full potential and when she did the probability of getting her back to the Academy were… poor at best.

They had to get her back, the damage that she could do with the secrets in her tiny, fragile little human mind could rip apart the very backbone of the Alliance. But they would find that ship before that happened. They would take her back, for the good of the Academy. No, for the good of the ALLIANCE.

* * *

_Serenity: River's Room_

River Tam is wide awake. She has been for the past hour, since her brother had woken her up and unceremoniously stuck that rutting big needle in her arm. She would have kicked him if he'd not been her brother and he'd not ensured her with all his heart that what he was injecting into her wouldn't make her all haywire, but actually make her feel like a human again. At least for a little while. It was better than nothing, she supposed.

She's waiting for the drugs to kick in. She holds her arm out and watches the pulse in her wrist for a while, her skin jumping slightly with every beat of her heart, the blood rushing to her fingertips making them bright pink. It was weird, if she really thought about it she could feel the drugs racing through her system, through every blood vessel and artery in her small body. She prods the little round plaster on her arm where Simon injected her, watching as the blood is soaked into the gauze to dry.

She drops her eyes to the floor as they begin to slip out of focus. She shouldn't do that, think. It made her head hurt and bad memories would come to the surface. It'd feel so much better when the drugs took hold, if she could just stop thinking until then. She could sleep, she could be herself, she could be free if only for a little time.

In the Academy they had made her think, and stuck more needles in her if she didn't. She'd had funny daydreams where they'd taken her memories and tampered with them, messed them all up so they weren't in the correct files anymore or she saw them from a different point of view like an out of body experience. Then she'd wake up and her head would be bandaged and when she asked what had happened, they said she'd 'taken a little fall'. After the first few times, River found it easier to believe them. She'd quickly learnt that in the Academy the rule was, 'anything for a quiet life'.

They'd given her drugs that made her sleep for long periods of time and others that had made her stay wide awake for days on end. When she managed to sleep naturally in her room, things dug into her back through the mattress and caused her so much pain. It had taken so long after Simon had rescued her for her to be able to sleep in a normal bed without the fear of things being stuck into her spine. When she tried to sleep now, she could still hear the screams of the other pupils at the Academy, calling for help, calling out for something for the pain, even for them to end it all for them, but never ever being tended to by the tall nurses in masks.

Every time they put her through some painful new kind of 'treatment' as they put it, she would always ask, 'Why are you doing this to me?', and the reply was always the same from behind their mask covered faces, 'You're special River, don't you want to be your best? Don't you want to be perfect? We can make you perfect.'

The worst thing by far was that they had lied to her face. She'd asked the Principle of the Academy if she would still be aloud to dance when she went for her interview. He'd smiled a warm, welcoming smile and said yes, unequivocally yes. Maybe if she'd looked at him closer, she would have seen the smile he gave her didn't reach his cold gray eyes.

She didn't dance, they told her what she was learning was dancing, but it sure as hell didn't feel like it. Dancing made you feel free, but what they had made her do just made her feel more and more caged. If she'd known that she wouldn't have been able to dance, then she would never have gone to the Academy and this thought had tortured her for many hours in her lucid periods.

River hated it when she thought about the Academy, but it's like a part of her mind wouldn't let it go, no matter how hard she tried to shake it from her consciousness. She felt she would never be able to let it go, not until all the secrets spilt out of her head and even then they'd sit there in her head like some horrific tumour in her mind.

She tilts her head on one side and closes her eyes tight as the drug finally begins to take effect. It's a surreal feeling, like everything is untangling and slipping back where it should be. Like tectonic plates sliding past each other, she thinks, with a smile to herself. She takes a deep breath and opens her eyes as the drugs finally reach her brain. Everything seems to jump into focus and the colours around her seem normal for once. She looks up and smiles as her brother gazes at her lovingly from the open door.

* * *

_Avalon_

Avalon is a strange little moon, with a population of just over a million people. As with all moons, it has its quirks. Then again why wouldn't it? After all it is named after an old Earth-That-Was myth that told tales of a time of magic, dragons and knights.

Not that many remembered the tales anymore, those kind of books were on the Alliances banned list and few got to see them. In fact they were buried deep in the libraries of the Alliance records where you needed six different kinds of clearances to see them. It was as all information was kept these days, only the privileged got to glean from the knowledge of old.

Avalon's lush green fields, beautiful deep blue lakes, almost all year round sunshine and warm climate make it an ideal spot for tourists and those looking to retire to a place in the sun. Thems that can afford it at least.

Its placid façade and low slung unpopulated valleys makes it the ideal breeding ground for crime. But sometimes crime doesn't exactly go as planned. Especially for the crew of Serenity, and today is really not their day.


	2. Chapter 1: Helping Hands

**Chapter One**  
- Helping Hands -

_Avalon: Valley_  
Gunshots ring through the low, sunlit valley in intermittent eruptions. It's a cacophony of thundering sound that breaks the quiet calm of the moon. Everything is bathed in the golden, orange glow, the glow of a setting sun.

It's a strange little corner of the 'Verse with shallow turquoise seas, deep blue lakes and golden sanded beaches that stretch hundreds of miles. When the sun sets on this tiny little moon, it actually sets behind another, in this case Albion, and it's already beginning to cast a long shadow which is creeping up the valley towards the gunfight.

Gunshots ring out again in short, deep bursts this time from a huge mounted Gatling gun on the top of a low gray Alliance control building near the mouth of the shallow valley. The bullets spray over a large area, including a large pile of Alliance marked crates where they bounce off and ricochet into the surrounding area like a deadly hailstorm.

Tucked behind these pitted and blackened shipping crates is Zoe Washburne, an athletic woman dressed in military style clothing. She brushes sweat and hair out of her face and checks her gun. It's a lever-action sawed-off carbine and although lacking in size, it kicks a mighty powerful punch.

She checks how many rounds she has left. Fourteen. Not enough to fight her way out of this scrape, and the range of her gun wouldn't be far enough to reach the closest man, let alone do any lasting damage. She tries to calculate the chances of getting out alive and growls as she realizes that it's more or less lambs to the slaughter. She looks over at a man positioned further along the pile of crates, and shakes her head. He frowns back at her, the flaps on his gray hat hiding the rage on his face.

His name is Jayne Cobb, and he's a grim faced, hulking mercenary. Unlike Zoe, he's dressed in civilian clothing which comprises of a pair of light gray cargo pants and an old, faded black t-shirt with a red design of Chinese characters below the picture of a skull.

He's loading a SK 12 gauge, which he has lovingly named Vera, with brass-cased rounds the size of his thumb. He pulls round after round off the bullet belt slung across his chest and loads them into the gun with speed and efficiency. There's not many rounds left on his belt though, and the fact seems to make him all the more angry at the situation.

Around his waist is a worn belt holding his Bowie knife and his Greer Model B gun. Scattered about his feet are the pins from several frag grenades, of which he has run out of. His first finger on his left hand is bleeding heavily from catching it in his gun's clip and blood smudges the guns stock.

This man is a true warrior, and this is definitely a man you're better off keeping on his good side with. Not that he really has a good side, he generally tends to go with the people who pay him the best and right now he feels like he should be paid double.

Jayne looks up at Zoe sharply as a loud primal roar draws closer to their cover. Jayne's eyes widen and he dodges out of the way as a man in a rust red coloured shirt and military style tan pants dives over the crates, and lands heavily next to Zoe, who is not at all surprised by his sudden appearance. It's not the first time she's seen him use this tactic in battle.

He groans in pain, and pushes himself up, scrabbling back into cover breathing heavily keeping his head low. Zoe rolls her eyes at him and risks a peek over her shipping crate. The situation is getting more desperate with each passing second, with more men joining the shoot out from the gray Alliance building. She leans back and shakes her head at her companions, including the new arrival.

This man is Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of the Firefly class scavenger and transport ship, Serenity. He's also likes to think of himself as a con man and a smuggler, but right now he would describe himself as an idiot.

Mal took this job on the sly from Ivan Moskowitz - a small time crook they had dealt with once before - hoping to make a fast buck. What he wasn't expecting was a barrage of bullets come his way the moment his ship dropped off the goods, and Mal got down to negotiating business with these bungers. It seemed Ivan had cheated these people in the past, and they'd decided to take it out on anyone who ran for him. Zoe had said this was a risky venture, but had Mal ignored her. After all his fuel tanks didn't run on dirt, and nothing as cheap as either.

Mal takes a few deep breaths to calm himself, and pulls his Shacorp IX semi-auto from its holster rather haphazardly, catching it on his braces. His hands are filthy, and shaking with adrenalin. He laughs manically, grinning at the moment of chaos within the ranks of the enemy and checks his clip with trembling fingers.

He poises himself behind the crates, getting ready to shoot over them, when Jayne catches his eye. He's staring wide-eyed at Mal's shoulder with a sickly look on his bearded face. He points at the Captains shoulder with his bloody finger. "Uh… Mal?" Jayne mutters.

Mal looks down to see what's bothering the mercenary so much, a little frown on his face. "Agh!" Mal yells in surprise. Then he groans loudly, sinking behind cover into a low slouching position.

Sticking out of his left shoulder is a large, sharp shard of blackened metal from one of the crates. Mal grimaces as he checks the damage. A small trickle of blood runs from the wound and soaks into his shirt as he wiggles it. He closes his eyes, takes a firm grasp of the shard of metal, and yanks it out of his shoulder with a pained grunt. He immediately regrets his decision as the little trickle of blood is more like a flood now and he presses his grubby hand to it desperately to halt the flow. The doc would sure as hell have something to say about that if they ever got out of here alive. Correction, he'd sure have something to moan about. He looks over to Zoe who has a disgusted look on her face, Mal isn't quite sure if it's the blood or him that's offended her.

"Okay," he groans, "Zoe you were right this WAS a really dumb idea."

"Thank you for admitting that, sir." she fires her shotgun blindly over the crates at the sound of approaching footsteps.

There's a yelp of pain as the shot hits the man and a sickening crack as he falls to the ground, cracking his head open on the concrete. Zoe looks back at Mal, who nods his head in approval at her shot.

"It's nice to know I'm right from time to time, sir." she adds with a small smile.

She pops up over the crates and fires her gun at the approaching enemy. More yelps and yowls of pain tell her that she's hit her targets. Two attackers fall to their knees and hit the floor, dead. A third man ducks behind cover clutching at his arm. Zoe ducks back down into cover. Jayne checks for more cover further out of the valley and swings back as bullets glance off the top of the crates dangerously close to his head.

"Might wanna tell Wash to pull at his gorramn finger and git us outta here." he yells at Zoe.

She wouldn't usually do as Jayne says with being under her in rank, and him being a world class ass and all, but she nods and hunkers down low behind the cover of the crates. Jayne and Mal - who is still clutching his shoulder hard - continue to fire as Zoe radios Serenity. She slips the radio from her belt and curses under her breath. A bullet has grazed it and it hangs in a mess of tattered wires and twisted plastic. Close one, she thinks as she pulls at the wires in an attempt to see if it would still work. This was going to be something that genius mechanic of theirs wouldn't be able to fix. She tosses the useless hunk of plastic aside, yanks Mal's radio from his belt, and holds it close to her mouth.

"Honey, some support would be great right now. Job's gone south and the landscape of things with the locals is… not so shiny." she says slowly and precisely.

The radio crackles with static for a few seconds, and she silently hopes that Serenity isn't in a communications black spot.

"I was really, really hoping those bangs were just fireworks celebrating how fantastically well the job went." Wash replies sarcastically over the radio, his voice crackling.

Zoe rolls her eyes, now is not the best time for Wash's sense of humour. She holds the radio back up to her mouth.

"Just get here." she snaps.

She slips the radio back onto her own belt and gets ready to fight once more.

Mal slumps behind the boxes holding his shoulder with the opposite hand. Blood pours through his fingers and onto his shirt, what isn't absorbed into the material streams down his arm and drips off his elbow into the dirt. He curses under his breath as the wound throbs painfully and his head begins to spin.

His only thought is that help was on the way and all they got to do is hold on, but he'd been told that before and it turned out to be a lie. He grips his gun as hard as he can, grits his teeth and gets up to fire at the aggressors.

* * *

_Serenity: Bridge_

Hoban 'Wash' Washburne is a flurry of activity on Serenity's bridge. He hits three main switches above him and pulls the yoke out towards himself. He presses more buttons, flicks more switches and twists more dials, prepping the Firefly Class ship's engines for a quick take off.

Serenity wobbles as her engines come online and a low hum fills the engine room, the wobble turns into a comforting vibration as the thrusters warm up. It's a sound Wash would normally enjoy, maybe even sit back and listen to for a moment, but right now the captain, and more importantly, his wife were getting shot at by some angry stick wilding locals. Jayne he was not so bothered about.

He flicks another few switches above his head and clears his throat to make an announcement over the internal communication system to the rest of Serenity's crew.

"Guys and girls, the job's gone south. Surprise, surprise. We're needed as support and rescue. Kaylee, prep the engine for full burn, we may need to make a quick exit. Simon, get to the med bay ready, there may be casualties… I hope to Buddha not," he allows himself a pause, and a little mouthed 'please' up to the ceiling, "Inara, Shepherd can you be ready to open up the airlock and get the guys back in, hopefully in one piece or as close as." he says quickly, his voice echoing around the ship.

He shuts down the intercom, and pulls his Hawaiian shirt off, throws it onto the co-pilots seat. Hen tightens the straps of his chair and takes a deep breath, blowing it out slowly. It's going to be a bit of a bumpy ride but nothing he couldn't handle and certainly nothing he hasn't done before. If he had to orchestrate another daring rescue this month, he was going to ask for a pay rise. He wipes his brow and puts his sweaty hands onto the yoke.

Wash pulls Serenity into the air, and she shudders as she is driven forward. He feels like someone pushed him down by his shoulders as the center of gravity is suddenly shifted. He'd have to talk to Kaylee about that, it was cutting down on performance, and he didn't fancy being a smear on the wall anytime soon - which he would be if it was left unchecked.

"What should I do?" asks a small voice from behind him.

Wash is so Zen master and in the zone that he doesn't even jump. He allows himself to glance back at the waif-like form of River Tam. She's a pale, thin young girl with long dark hair that falls either side of her face in messy, bedraggled curtains. Today she's dressed in an ill fitting pink flowery number that really doesn't suit her in any way shape or form, in fact it makes her look even more deranged than she actually is. Wash's eyes snap back to the window. His right eye twitches slightly in annoyance, but he remains calm and polite as ever.

"You just go and make some tea for when everybody gets back, okay sweetie?" he says kindly.

River, however, doesn't take the tone of voice well. She narrows her eyes, and glares at the back of his head in anger. It must get to him, being stared at, because for a split second he looks back at her again.

"I'm crazy, not dumb… boob," she says coldly, "By the way, its your flying not the Grav Boot that's causing the gravity to shift." she adds.

She wasn't being nasty and she understood that Zoe was in danger, but she found it hard to understand how these factors effected his flying. She would have to ponder this later when her world wasn't moving quite so fast. Wash, who wasn't paying any attention whatsoever to her, just nods. He's not even bothered that she seems to have read his very thoughts.

"That's nice sweetie, you do that. Uncle Wash is trying not to smoosh us all into human jam, okay?" he says sweetly.

"And there's no need to be so patronizing." River snaps. Wash just ignores her and concentrates on the job in hand.

River looks out of the window for a few seconds, imagining what it would be like to just spread out her arms and fly through the clouds, their gentle mist falling on her face. Serenity shudders, jerking her back into reality. She drops her arms back to her sides, the moment passing.

River walks silently down the connecting corridor from the bridge to the dining room unfazed by the pilots refusal of help. She runs her hand along the metal work as she goes, feeling every dent and imperfection under her fingertips. Her long hair flutters behind her and her floaty pink dress ripples as she makes her way through the corridor, and down the steps into the dining area.

The ship suddenly bucks, complaining about being pushed so hard without the engines being warmed up fully. This little hiccup doesn't bother River and she doesn't even flinch as a stack of tin plates and cups slide to the floor. She just carries on as sure footed as ever.

* * *

_Serenity: Engine Room_

River steps into the warm orange glow of the engine room. A wave of heat makes her dizzy for a second, but she stands firm right in the middle of the doorway. For a moment she stands their in quietly, breathing in the scent of slightly burnt metal and engine grease. It takes her back to when, as a young girl, she used to sneak off the industrial quarter with her brother. The city streets always smelt of burnt metal there from the machines that worked tirelessly behind closed doors.

The ships mechanic, Kaywinnet 'Kaylee' Lee Frye, is busy at work prepping the engine for hard burn. She talks to it as she makes the necessary adjustments with a large wrench.

"Now come on honey, don't complain. I know you don't like me preppin' you 'fore we even break atmo, but we might need you, 'kay?" Kaylee mutters lovingly.

She shifts around the engine as it winds away, wrench in hand, using it in some places like a hammer. She picks through the parts scattered all over the floor with delicate footsteps, to River it looks almost like a dance.

River waits patiently watching the engine spin, counting the rotations to work out how many times it spins a minute. She waits like this until Kaylee realizes she she's there and looks up from her work, blowing a strand of hair out of her eyes, smiling a little. "River, sweetie, this ain't the time-"

"Can I help you?" River butts in, tearing her eyes from the engine as it spins faster.

Kaylee freezes and looks at River quizzically. After a moment she breaks eye contact and continues her work, now avoiding Rivers eyes.

"No honey, I'm fine. You just go and take a nap or somethin', 'kay?" she says softly.

River stands as still as a statue for a second, then sighs casting her eyes to the floor. She twists her hands together and looks at Kaylee reproachfully.

"'Kay," she says, imitating Kaylee's accent perfectly, "Oh Wash want's you to check the Grav Boot… he thinks it's not working, I've told him it's just his flying."

"The Grav Boot?" Kaylee asks frowning, not even chastising at River for imitating her accent.

She hunkers down to check the Grav Boot and shrugs. Finding no fault she returns to reconnecting the stabilizer to the internal damper. River drops her eyes to the floor again, leaves Kaylee to worry about the engine and heads off in search of the rest of the crew.

* * *

_Serenity: Cargo Bay_

River wanders down the hall and heads for the cargo bay, the spring that she had in her step now gone. She looks down at the lower level of the cargo bay where Shepherd Book is sat astride the old beaten up mule looking strangely, right at home. Inara Serra is stood, pistol in hand, by the controls for the airlock doors. They don't look up as River trails down to them slowly. Inara finally looks up at her as she gets to the bottom of the stairs, gives her the hint of a smile, then checks her Astra 400 pistol.

River looks over to Book, who is checking the fuel gauge on the mule. She watches them closely, judging the right time to talk by their body language. She quickly finds a break.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" she asks before one of them has a chance to brush her aside with a quick witted comment.

Book and Inara give each other a glance that confers more than they can say.

"River, honey, we're fine here." Book says smiling warmly.

"Everything is sorted. Why don't you take a seat and leave this all to us?" Inara adds, giving River the same sort of smile.

River's own, now rather fixed smile, falls. She nods sullenly and drags her feet towards the med bay without another word.

* * *

_Serenity: Med Bay_

Simon Tam, River's older brother and the ships doctor, is washing his hands in the round metal sink, ready for any possible casualties. He's muttering to himself under his breath.

"Gunshot wounds, got to be… every time, when is it not?" he mumbles, shaking his head and frowning.

River leans against the frame of the door and crosses her arms, watching as Simon washes each finger of his hand methodically. He turns and smiles at River lovingly.

"Hey _mei mei_, what's up?" he asks lightly.

"Do you want any help?" River asks in a sullen monotone.

"You're alright, I don't need any help. Just go and-"

"NO! Why does everyone treat me like a child running with a pair of scissors," River yells, completely loosing it, "Nobody wants my help. I just sit around all day, half a girl, half a lab rat and every time I reach out to someone they push me away because they think I can't take it. I may as well be back at the Academy being experimented on and this whole thing be a dream. Except I pinch myself," she grabs a patch of skin on her cheek and pinches, hard, "And it hurts and I'm left with a red mark. Your minds are so closed and tiny, you can't even comprehend how I feel. I can't even take comfort in someone else's head. Everything comes back, and I'm not a girl, and I can't dance… and I hate it, I hate it, Simon, I hate it so much." She gives a huge racking sob and holds her arms around herself, hugging herself tightly, her cheek becoming red.

Before Simon has a chance to reply, River disappears in a flurry of hair and flowery pattern. Simon goes to run after her but he gets as far as the door and Serenity shudders to a halt. He sighs and blinks tears from his eyes, her words hitting him like a fist. Right now he had to be professional, he'd have to talk things out with his sister later.


	3. Chapter 2: The Spoken Word

**Chapter Two**  
- The Spoken Word -

_Serenity: Cargo Bay_

Down in the cargo bay, Inara takes her place by the controls as Wash drops Serenity into a tight landing spot in the valley below. Book slides off the mule and picks up a rifle to give cover fire. For a preacher, he is surprisingly at ease around a loaded gun, a fact that he'd rather die than admit to.

The sound of bullets ricocheting off the airlock ramp echoes around the space, every hit making Serenity ring like a bell. Wash's voice fills the bay again, masking the loud ringing for a brief moment. "Okay Inara, open her up." he says in a strained voice, he's struggling to keep Serenity close enough to the ground to be boarded, but not close enough to trigger a land lock. It sounds like he's trying to hold Serenity in the air with every iota of strength in his body.

Inara delicately presses the door release button and the doors begin to slide open, the airlock ramp dropping. Suddenly the whole cargo hold is echoing with the sound of gunfire and yelling. Inara has to take cover as more bullets from the mounted gun spray the opening ramp and sneak through the opening doors. They bounce off walls and grab rails as they make their way through the cargo bay. Book, seemingly unperturbed by this, hunkers down and begins to fire back through the increasing gap never once aiming to kill any of the attackers.

Mal is the first one to dive through the gap having pulled himself up onto the still opening ramp. He hurls himself into cover behind the control panel with Inara who gapes at him in shock. Blood is pouring down his arm and sleeve, dripping off the tips of his fingers. He's loosing so much blood through the wound that he's left a small trail of blood running down the ramp. Inara freezes and her eyes are wide at the sight of a bloodied Mal.

"Zoe and Jayne are coming now, give them cover." he yells breathlessly at Inara and Book.

It takes a moment for Inara to process it, but when she does she moves in to provide cover. It's not needed as Zoe and Jayne pile through the still opening doors, firing back at their attackers. Zoe runs straight to the intercom and slams her hand onto the button below the mouthpiece.

"Wash, get us the hell out of here." she yells, not even filching as more bullets bounce off the outer walls of the ship.

Inara presses the button to close the doors. Jayne is still firing Vera through the increasingly smaller gap, each shot giving off a loud bang that sounds like a drum.

Serenity lifts into the air taking the crew away from the danger in a puff of dust. As she gets higher the ringing bullet sounds become more infrequent until they are gone completely.

Jayne looks down lovingly at the gun in his hands and marches away to his bunk to get his cleaning kit. His finger is still bleeding from when he caught his finger in the clip of his gun, but he is far too stubborn to get any help from the doctor. Instead he just shoves the bleeding digit in his mouth and sucks on it until its clean.

Zoe ignores the rest of the crew, even a bleeding Mal, and heads straight up to the bridge to her husband. Mal makes a move to follow her, but staggers and leans back on the doors, sinking to the floor. He clutches at his shoulder tightly and grinds his teeth. Okay, maybe the blood loss was becoming a serious issue here. Inara, who has gathered herself, puts her pistol down and runs over to him, a look of deep worry on her pretty face.

"Mal, you're hurt, we need to get you to Simon." she says softly.

"Don't fuss, woman, I'm fine." Mal replies, trying to stand.

Inara stops him by holding onto his good arm and pushing him back down by his uninjured shoulder. Mal gives up and clutches his shoulder tighter glaring at Inara incredulously. He evades Inara's touch as she tries to look at the wound and she gasps as she manages to prize his hand away from it.

"God, Mal this is really bad." she mutters on the verge of tears.

Book crouches down beside her to help. Mal narrows his eyes as the Shepherd lays a gentle hand on his knee and leans in to get a closer look at the injury.

"I really don't need a preacher." Mal says defiantly.

"She's right, son, this is bad," Book says, he looks up at Inara, "I'll get Simon." he says to her, completely ignoring Mal's rude comment.

He hurries to the med bay, leaving Inara - and an increasingly pale Mal - alone. Inara pulls her shawl from around her shoulder and presses it to his shoulder to calm the flow of blood. It wasn't the first time that she had to nurse a bleeding Mal, and she was sure it wasn't going to be the last either. The man seemed to be a magnet for bullets, and knives, even one time a sword. But they didn't mention that little escapade anymore.

She'd become used to him coming back with a new bruise, or fresh cut, maybe even a new bullet hole, but never had she ever seen something as bad as this. He was bleeding more than she'd ever seen, and it was paining her to see him like this. The moment the shawl touches the wound the blood stains the pale green silk a vivid red. Mal flinches as she presses hard.

"Argh, gorramn it woman, that hurts!" he hisses, fighting back tears of pain.

"Do you want to bleed to death?" Inara snaps.

"If you press that hard again, I really wouldn't complain if I did." Mal jokes, his eyes slipping out of focus.

Inara doesn't laugh, but fixes him with a steely gaze instead.

"I swear gettin' shot doesn't hurt as much." he adds under his breath, Inara doesn't hear him as she's trying to stop the bleeding as best as she can.

Simon runs across the cargo bay, and begins to tend to Mal immediately. He frowns deeply as he checks the wound prodding it, and pulling at it making Mal wince with every movement of his nimble fingers.

"This is revenge for me punching you in the face when we first met, isn't it?" Mal grimaces.

"It was twice," Simon reminds him under his breath, "This isn't a gunshot wound, what did this?"

"Piece of metal flew right at me off of a crate. Jayne wasn't particularly lookin' where he was thrown them grenades back there. I pulled it right out, it was restrictin' my aim." Mal explains in slur, wincing again.

Simon shakes his head disapprovingly at this unsurprising revelation. He knows better than to bring Mal up on making things worse for himself, that was Inara and Zoe's job.

"We need to get this cleaned up."

"Then stitches, I guess?"

"Then stitches." Simon echoes, nodding.

He gets to his feet and heaves Mal to his with Book's help. Inara walks with them still pressing the shawl to his shoulder and offering looks of sympathy to a woozy Mal.

* * *

_Serenity: Med Bay_

Together Inara, Book, and Simon hurry Mal to the med bay. They rush him through the door, and drop him back onto the medical bench heavily. Mal looks dizzy as he lies back onto the bench, staring up at the white ceiling panels above him. He was getting much too used to that view. Simon preps a shot of painkiller into the hypo-needle, and shoots it directly into Mal's neck.

"Now this may make you drowsy." he informs Mal.

"Like the loss o' blood ain't doin' that to me already." Mal replies, shrugging.

He grits his teeth as shots of pain travel down his arm making his eyes water. Stupid mistake to make. Inara hovers in the background, the blood soaked shawl still in her hands, watching Simon carefully. Simon looks up from the needle to Book, who has a calming hand on Mal's good shoulder, which is also keeping Mal from getting up and heading to the bridge.

"Shepherd, could you talk to River? I think she's angry with me and you've really done everything you can to help me here." Simon asks as he slips his hands into a pair of rubber gloves.

Book nods and pats Mal on the knee as he passes. Simon angles a bright light onto Mal's shoulder and sets to work. Inara moves into the corner of the room, her hand over her mouth and her eyes welling with tears. She wrings the bloody shawl in her hands, and mutters a prayer under her breath. She knows Mal would hate it if he ever found out she was praying for him, but it's all she can think to do. Simon glances up slightly from his work as he begins to suture the wound. Inara looks pale and shaky, stood in the corner looking like a ghost.

"Are you okay, Inara?" he asks, concerned.

"I'm fine, just worried. I've never…" she pauses then shakes her head.

"What?"

"I've never seen him like this." Inara pulls a high stool to her corner and sits down.

"Your concern is awful flatterin'." Mal replies groggily from the bench.

Simon shushes him and begins to clean the congealed blood from Mal's wound. He doesn't look up as Inara shifts her weight nervously, he is concentrating to hard on fixing Mal up.

"Inara, please could you go and get Wash, we need a blood transfusion." Simon says softly. Inara nods her head and runs off to find him.

Mal looks up at Simon, his eyes slipping in and out of focus.

"Where'd she go?" he asks thickly.

Inara's lip twitches in a slight smile as she walks through the door, and Simon just shakes his head. He carries on cleaning up the closed wound for bandaging, careful not to snag any of the stitches. Mal's eyes slowly close as the drugs finally hit him hard, and he slips into unconsciousness.

* * *

_Serenity: River's Room_

River is curled up on her bed, her knees tucked up to her chest, her back against the wall sat perfectly straight backed. She's pulling angrily at the stray threads on the hem of her dress, her head bowed. She knows that very soon the drugs that Simon gave her were going to wear off, and it was annoying her. She hated this time, the waiting for the inevitable loss of lucidity. It made her feel so helpless. It was like at any moment she was going to loose grip and float off into the maelstrom of thoughts that plagued her waking mind.

There's a gentle knock at the door.

"Go away." she snaps, not even looking up to see who it is. Not that she really needs to having deduced who it is by the sound of their footsteps.

And she really doesn't want to talk to HIM. The hair was just waiting and one day it'd get her, fall on her like snow off the roof. Bury her, and speak words over her… She shakes her head, pushing the thoughts away.

Book still enters, smiling that warm soft smile he reserves just for River, the smile that she hates. River doesn't acknowledge him as he takes a seat on the end of his bed. She picks at the frayed hem even more vigorously.

Book patiently watches her until River calms down, and she reluctantly looks at him not quite meeting his eyes, rather hovering round them.

"Simon sent me to talk to you." he says softly.

River flicks her eyes back to the hem of her dress, picking it harder and scowling at it, as if it's the one that's done wrong by her. She hates the soft gentle tone of Book's voice. It irritates her, and just reminds her of the disembodied voice she used to hear in her dreams at the Academy, it makes her skin crawl. And she already knew who sent him. She wasn't a complete backbirth. Book, having no idea of his effects on River, strives on regardless of her reaction.

"Seems to think you're upset. Angry with him." he says in the same soft tone of voice.

River says nothing, but just grinds her teeth in annoyance, trying to concentrate on anything other than the tone of his voice. Fractural physics, geometry, human biology, even trying to count prime numbers backwards. But none of these methods can keep it getting to her, getting under her skin, and making it crawl. Book watches her pull a particularly long thread off her dress.

"You know, sometimes, when we pick at a thread-"

"-Everything unravels." River butts in, finishing his sentence.

She's resigned herself to the fact that he is so persistent that he won't go away unless she communicates with him. Book nods and sighs, he's become used to Rivers uncanny ability to know exactly what you're going to say next.

"Yes." he says, smiling.

"You're predictable."

"You're not." Book retaliates.

River can't help but smile at Books comment, it's an admittance to being unpredictable.

"What do you want to talk about?" she asks, lightly.

"Why are you're so angry with us all?" Book asks, getting right to the point.

There's no point beating around the bush when talking to a girl who can read your very thoughts before you even think them yourself. River never breaks eye contact with him as she relaxes and crosses her legs.

"I can't help anyone," she admits, "Everyone has a job to do. I have nothing. If anything, I just make things worse."

"I don't have a job to do either, it's not a bad thing."

"You pray. You talk. Nine times out of ten you are the voice of reason, and 79.69% of the time your hunches are correct. I did the math."

"Ah." Book sighs, speechlessly.

All he can do is shake his head modestly at her calculations. This child was nothing less than a genius.

"But, that isn't a job. I don't get thanked for it and I don't expect to be." he says, a pained sort of look on his face.

"You call it your work, Gods Holy work."

"It's Gods word that I must work hard at everything I do."

"No it's not… it's yours." River says quietly.

Book looks surprised, his eyebrows high on his forehead. River stares at him calmly, a little smile forming on her face, enjoying the fact that she's hit a raw nerve. Book decides to take a different approach as he strives on.

"You don't need to help, you need to concentrate on getting better. Leave the work to the rest of us." Book says warmly.

"What if I don't get better?" River asks picking up on his change of tack.

"God gives us the strength to overcome all our trials and tribulations."

"How can an illogical, metaphorical 'being' make me strong? I can't touch him or smell him or sense him in anyway, so how can he be real? How can you blindly follow something that can be classed as group hysteria? We're all just screaming at the dark. Screaming at the silence." River says plainly.

Book looks at her, his smile fixed. There's something about the way she said 'screaming at the dark' that sends a shock of tingling fear down his spine, and makes the hairs stand up on the back of his neck. Every part of his body tell him to run from her, tells her she'd unnatural. But not necessarily that she's wrong. River leans in uncomfortably close to him. She's looking deeply into his eyes, unblinking.

"Did God give you the strength to do what you did?" she asks in a far away sort of voice, her eyes burning into his.

Books face falls and he looks at her. He's scared of her, she can see it. Scared of this tiny little entity that isn't really a girl at all, just in the shape of one. It takes him a while to gather his thoughts, and regain his composure. When he speaks again, his voice is harder.

"The Lord tests us in ways he sees fit." he mumbles.

"You keep telling yourself that, Preacher man." River sighs.

She rests her jaw on her open hands and stares at Book, unnerving him.

"I don't like tests. They hurt you physically or mentally… or they may even hurt your faith. I tend to keep away from them as a rule." she adds, looking away.

Book gives her another warm smile, his eyes hiding the feeling of deepest dread in his heart. The dread that this tiny little thing knows more about him than he is willing to share with any member of the crew of Serenity. He realizes that he's fighting a loosing battle and decides to cut his losses and leave her be, before she cuts too deep into his psyche. Before Book closes the door after himself, River calls out to him.

"If thine own eye offends thee, pluck it out… Mark, Chapter Nine, Verse Forty Seven." she calls in a sing-song voice.

Book freezes in the doorway an expression of pure horror etched on his face. He looks back at her, intending to say something. Words completely fail him and he stands there, speechlessly flapping his mouth. River stares at him blankly with those creepy, haunted eyes of hers that plunge deep into his own. Book clenches his teeth, and leaves swiftly not even closing the door behind him. River stares at the spot he was stood in for a second, then gets agilely to her feet and walks soundlessly to the open door. She peers out to see Book closing his own door.

"Go back to your false prayers, Preacher Man." she mumbles under her breath.

She slides the doors closed again and takes a deep breath and smiles to herself. That was fun even if, in hindsight, it was a little mean and spiteful of her. It certainly passed the time. Her face falls into a frown. Now the Shepherd has run away scared, she has no one to talk to. She sighs and sits heavily back on her bed, returning to the hem of her dress. She picks at it once more, counting each fibre as it passes through her quick, nimble fingers.


	4. Chapter 3: Persistance Pays Off

**Chapter Three**  
- Persistence Pays Off -

_Serenity: Med Bay_

The med bay is deathly silent after the furore of earlier. Its dimly lit by the soft blue strip lights on the ceiling. Mal is gently dozing on the bench - his arm now bandaged in a sling, and strapped to his body to restrict movement. Simon removes the empty blood bag from Mal's good arm, checking his vitals carefully as he does so. He pulls off his rubber gloves, and washes his hands. He checks Mal's vitals once more and - satisfied with the results - leaves the med bay in search of his sister, throwing the used gloves in the bin as he goes.

Mal's eyes flick open as soon as the doctor disappears round the corner. He was only pretending to doze while the doctor went around his business. Sitting up he pauses, and holds his good hand to his head trying to get his head to stop spinning. It feels like he's suffering from the mother of all sake hangovers.

As soon as his head clears, he pulls the little round plaster from his arm that Simon had just stuck over the mark left by the intravenous drip from the blood bag. He slides his legs over the side of the bench and sneaks to the door where he looks left, and right to check for Simon - or anyone else - who would come and tell him to stay put. It's a bit much when you have to sneak around like a criminal on your own gorramn ship.

The coast is clear so he quickly returns into the med bay to collect his shirt, and get out of there quickly before Simon returns to check up on him. No doctor -no matter how qualified - is going to make Mal sit around taking 'bed rest' when there is a rat problem to deal with.

He picks up his tattered shirt from the counter top and tries to put it on one handed. It slips off his shoulders, and falls to the floor. He leans down to pick it up, and groans as a sharp pain shoots down his arm.

"I thought you were supposed to rest? Doctors orders." Inara says quietly.

Mal jumps at Inara's sudden appearance, and straightens up holding his hand to his thumping heart. He turns his back to her, and takes a few deep steadying breaths. Why did she always have to sneak up on him like that? And why hadn't he gotten used to it by now? She'd been on the ship nigh on a year and she was good at turning up in the most unexpected of places. Inara smiles to herself amused by his reaction, and shakes her head.

"You ruined a perfectly good shawl you know." she continues.

"I apologize for bleeding to death." Mal says defensively.

Inara is caught off guard by his sudden sharp tone, and she gives him a slightly cold smile. Mal's face softens, and he sighs to himself. Mal manages to scoop his shirt up off the floor with some difficulty, and a lot of pain. He just grits his teeth, and bares it to save face in front of Inara. He winces, and straightens up a flicker of pain crossing his face. He tries to put the shirt on again, struggling with finding the sleeve, cursing under his breath. Inara watches him for a few seconds before taking pity on him.

"Oh for goodness sake…" she mutters, rolling her eyes.

She confidently strides towards him to pull his shirt on. Her hand hovers on his shoulder a fraction longer than it should, it rests on the back of his collar even longer, her knuckles brushing his hair ever so slightly. Mal is embarrassed by her help, his cheeks flushing slightly. Then again the flush of colour might have been from her delicate fragrance that suddenly surrounds him. They stand for a moment, uncomfortably, yet comfortably close to each other. He clears his throat, and Inara removes her hand quickly backing away from him. Her cheeks darkening slightly in a blush.

"Uh… thanks." he mutters, turning to face her properly.

Inara shakes her head gracefully and gazes at him steadily as he adjusts the shirt, the empty sleeve waving around uselessly.

"Well, you're not going to stay put, are you?" she asks, placing a hand on her waist.

"Things to do, people to meet, stuff to steal," Mal replies with a smirk, "No rest for the wicked."

He nods towards the door, this is his way of politely telling Inara to get out of the way. Inara sighs, and moves folding her arms once more, and narrowing her eyes at him. She can't help but worry, after all he had lost an awful lot of blood. He turns to her at the door and takes a deep breath.

"And I'll, you know… pay for the… shawl I ruined. I promise." he says, smiling.

"It's worth more than a years rent for my shuttle. It was a leaving present from one of my clients. Londinium silk, hand-woven." Inara replies, smirking.

Mal grimaces at the thought of him bleeding onto something so expensive.

"I'll get back to you on that." he replies. He leaves the med bay and heads to the bridge, Inara in hot pursuit.

* * *

_Serenity: Dining Area_

Inara and Mal walk swiftly through the dining area. Jayne is sat at the table cleaning the dirt and blood from his guns and knives with an array of different cleaning tools laid out before him. There is now a rough bandage made of a clean strip of cloth wrapped around his cut finger, spots of blood have soaked through the thin material. Jayne has ignored it, and the young doctor hasn't even bothered to offer to take a look at it, already knowing the answer to his offer.

Mal makes his way past him, Inara still following him. Jayne watches Inara go as he shines his knife with a filthy rag, leering at her as he always does when she graces him with her presence - which isn't very often for that exact reason. He frowns up at Mal as he realises that he's with her.

"Didn't the doc say for you to stay put?" he asks, polishing the knifes handle as he speaks.

He holds Mal with a passive gaze. Mal looks back at him, his eyes wide in utter confusion.

"Since when did you give a good gorramn about what the doc says?" he asks, completely taken aback by Jayne's sudden concern for his wellbeing, and admittedly a little concerned as to what he was being so nice for.

"I normally don't, but seein' that big ol' bitta metal stickin' outta your shoulder… well s'your funeral if you don't let it heal." Jayne replies with a careless shrug.

Mal shakes his head in bewilderment, his mouth slightly open.

"Who are you and what have you done with Jayne Cobb?" Mal demands.

Jayne sarcastically pretends to laugh silently and sheaths his knife. Inara shakes her head at Jayne and looks back at Mal. She fixes him with a pleading look.

"I hate to say it, I really do," she throws a look of distain at Jayne who is still leering at her, "But Jayne is right Mal. You need to sit down and rest."

"No I need to sort out this whole steaming pile of go se before it gets any more out of hand." Mal snaps, getting angry.

He turns to Inara, a deep frown darkening his face. Normally he wouldn't snap at her that viciously, let alone raise his voice at her - well, not after that one time that she'd slapped him across the face - but she's beginning to irritate him with her constant pestering. And following him around like a lazy kitten is not helping his mood.

What's even worse that Jayne is agreeing with her, and it just gets him even more wound up. He leans towards Inara, deliberately breaking her personal space.

"Will-you-stop-following-me?" he shouts, slowing it down and snapping each word.

"I will… when you decide to sit down and REST!" Inara replies defiantly, her voice strong.

Mal stares at her, grinding his teeth in annoyance. He blinks his eyes hard hoping that when he opens them Inara will have disappeared and hoping to mask the spasm of pain from his shoulder.

Inara, however, doesn't back down, she stares right back at him calmly. She puts her hands on her hips, and raises her eyebrow at him almost as if she's waiting for him to snap at her again. Mal shakes his head in annoyance, and continues onto the bridge ignoring her angry stares. Not letting it go, Inara follows him.

* * *

_Serenity: Bridge_

Mal enters the dimly lit bridge, and looks at the vista of stars in the front viewport. When Serenity is flying in the black like this, the bridge is mainly lit by a small bank of lights just at the front of the control panel that Wash is sat at. Buttons flicker and flash, throwing different coloured lights across his face as he checks the navsat for any unusual disturbances.

As Mal walks to his usual spot behind Wash's pilot chair, Wash turns his chair around. He flinches back in his chair as he comes face to face with Mal.

"Jeeze, Mal, you look like hell." Wash exclaims, not lying.

A little voice in the back of his head warned him that this wasn't the best thing to say to a pissed off Mal, but as ever he just ignores it. Wash had seen Mal in some states over the past few years, and more than once he'd been on the other end of a blood bag for him. The first time it had happened, Wash had almost fainted at the sight of all that blood. He'd never admitted - not even to Zoe - that he really wasn't good with the whole gushing blood thing. He'd quickly gotten used to it, which wasn't a good thing as it showed just how much people got hurt in this line of work. He'd even seen his own spilt blood on occasion, and managed somehow not to throw up or faint. Well, not while anyone was watching.

Right now Mal definitely looked like death warmed up. Wash wasn't going to lie to him. Not when he could get away with winding up the Captain so easily.

"I'm going to ignore that." Mal mutters.

He turns to Inara who is leaning by the lockers by the door. Wash gives her a bemused look, he doesn't often see Inara on the bridge unless there's an emergency.

"Who said you could come onto the bridge of my ship?" Mal snaps.

"I'll stop coming onto the bridge of your ship when you stop coming into my shuttle unannounced," Inara retaliates, "Now, stop being so pig headed, and sit down at least." she insists, waving a delicate hand towards the co-pilot seat.

"That wouldn't be such a bad idea you know, Mal. You do look a bit… sorta pale green around the face." Wash adds, waving his fingers in front of his own face for emphasis.

Mal licks his lips and bites his lower lip hard. He takes a deep breath, ignores their comments, and turns back to Wash.

"So did you tell that rat bastard, Ivan that I wanna see him?" Mal asks, holding his bad arm close to his body.

Wash looks from Mal to Inara, and shrugs helplessly. He knows that there's no use arguing with the captain once he's set his mind on something.

"Yeah, Zoe did. Ivan wants to meet us on Persephone as soon as. He said he'd be waiting for us at the docks. He was pretty insistent, the words bullet, and brain cropped up a few times." Wash grimaces, leaning back in his chair, and sighing.

Mal swears under his breath in Chinese, and grinds his teeth again.

"Things are just getting better and better," he growls as another shot of pain travels down his arm, "Get everyone to the dining area, now." he adds snappily.

He storms towards the dining area himself, holding his arm tight to his chest.

Inara sighs, and hangs her head slightly in weariness. Wash's lips twitch into a pitying smile. He knows exactly how she feels having had the exact same argument with Zoe on more than one occasion.

"It's like talkin' to a brick wall sometimes, ain't it?" Wash says in an overly cheery voice.

"I find brick walls to be more responsive. And they tend not to answer back." she replies, rubbing her temple with a long finger.

The constant argument is making her head feel tight. Its taken all of her willpower not to slap Mal… or burst into tears, however it was more than likely she'd end up slapping him.

"You know what Mal's like, he doesn't take anyone's advice. He's too high and mighty for that." Wash says with a frank smile.

Inara laughs lightly, looking down at her feet. That's not really how she would have put it. He acted high and mighty with her, but not so much the rest of the crew, not unless he was in a really foul mood. He genuinely thought he was better than her, but both she and Mal knew that wasn't true. It was just something else he used to wind her up. Inara looks up at Wash, giving him a radiant smile.

"This is true." Inara replies with a slight roll of her eyes.

Wash shrugs turning back towards the console to plug in the co-ordinates for Persephone, and inform the crew of the impromptu meeting with Ivan.

* * *

_Serenity: Dining Room_

Inara takes her leave of the bridge with a wave of goodbye, and follows Mal down the connecting corridor as Wash's voice comes over the intercom. She catches up with him at the table just as Wash finishes his cheery little speech to the crew. All she does is look at Mal, and open her mouth to say something. He throws his good hand into the air to halt her.

"Okay, okay!" Mal snaps. He roughly pulls a chair out from the table, slams it back onto the floor, and sits down heavily, crossing his good arm across his bad one to protect it.

Inara is strongly reminded of a little child who is being told off and the urge to slap him comes back.

"You gonna stop pestering me now?" he asks, looking up at Inara who seats herself next to him and beside Jayne who absentmindedly polishes the barrel of Vera as he watches the exchange in interest.

Mal looks up at him, an angry frown on his face. For a moment they look at each other, Jayne not quiet understanding why he is getting glared at by a wild eyed Mal. Then Jayne makes a little 'oh' sound as the penny drops, and goes back to cleaning his gun still listening intently, but not lifting his eyes from the barrel of his gun except to throw Mal a dirty look. During this unspoken exchange between the two men, Inara hasn't taken her eyes off Mal's pale face. She tries to hide her worry, but it just comes out as a pained expression.

"What," Mal asks, paranoid by her staring, "I don't got sumat on my face, do I?" he runs his hand over his face nervously, giving extra attention to his stubble on his cheeks with the tips of her fingers.

Huh, need a shave, he mused as he rubbed his chin with the palm of his hand. Inara, however, just shakes her head in disbelief, her eyes wide. She smirks and lets out quiet laugh.

"Look at that, Malcolm Reynolds actually listened to someone for once. Where is the champagne?" she sighs, leaning back in her chair.

"Well, there's a first time for everything." Mal replies with a cheeky grin.

"Well I've just been proved wrong." Inara adds. She looks away from a suddenly confused looking Mal.

Jayne smiles as he polishes Vera, he was waiting for a snippy comment from Mal, but it never comes. He chances a sly look up from the barrel of his gun at Mal. Jayne groans inwardly.

Mal is fixing Inara with a soft reproachful gaze. Uh oh, Jayne knew what that meant. He suddenly felt very awkward at the table, something he didn't usually feel in any situation. He just wasn't the awkward kinda bloke, him and awkward didn't sit well, it made him want to shoot things. He clears his throat, quickly scoops his cleaning equipment up, and swings Vera over his shoulder. Best to get outta here, them kinda looks always seem to be catching.


	5. Chapter 4: Meetings

**Chapter Four**  
- Meetings -

_Serenity: Dining Area_  
The crew is assembled around the table, talking amongst themselves quietly, and drinking coffee from the large pot in the middle of the table. They're voicing their opinions on why the job went so badly, and damage to the ship. Kaylee and Wash are talking animatedly about the repairs that's she's going to have to do to the ships steering. Zoe is the only one who remains silent, waiting for Mal to tell the rest of the crew what she already knows.

Mal thumps the flat of his hand on the table for silence making the mugs jump, and spilling the contents of several onto the clean table top. Everyone shuts up abruptly, and turns to look at him. All except for Kaylee who sighs, and grabs a cloth from the kitchen counter behind her to clean the table without getting up. Mal patiently waits for her to finish mopping up her spillage, a tiny twitch of his lips showing that he finds it endearing and not in the least annoying. All he wants is the crews full attention for what he's about to say. Kaylee smiles at Mal to continue. Mal's face becomes dark, and he takes a deep breath.

"I don't think I need to express just how dangerous this meeting with Ivan is." he says, his voice low but still strong enough to keep everyone's attention.

He rubs his bad shoulder which has begun to ache terribly, his face sullen. Simon frown intensifies. He is deeply perturbed by what Mal is telling them. This could be bad for him and River… and that was a polite understatement. It would be much more than bad, more like catastrophic.

"Dangerous? Dangerous how?" he asks, panic raising in his voice.

"So far as I know, Ivan don't know 'bout you and your sister." Mal replies reassuringly.

Simon puffs his cheeks out, and sighs in relief, letting his tense shoulders relax. Mal looks round the table, and frowns at the young doctor, "Where IS the girl?"

'The Girl', Mal always called her that. It was either that or 'Your Sister' to the doctor. For some reason it made him feel like the situation was a distant threat, and not right on his doorstep if he didn't use their names. That, and he knew it wound the doc up no end. Although it was a cheap shot it always seemed to do the trick.

"I'm trying out a new course of meds on River," Simon amplifies his sisters name in annoyance, "It's got side effects though. She's been sleeping-"

"Whoa, whoa, doc!" Mal jumps in, holding his hand up to silence Simon before he launches into a full blown explanation.

Mal just knows it would be peppered with medical jargon that he didn't understand or rightly care about. He was just happy that the girl was out of the way, and trying not to kill anyone for once. Or trying rub soup in his hair, which was a slightly disturbing habit she had developed recently.

"Just keep your head down, and you 'n' the girl'll be fine. As for the rest of you," he looks around the table slowly, looking at each member of his crew, "Inara, Kaylee, Wash, Shepherd Book, you don't leave this boat. Now that's not an order, that's a request. Inara, Shepherd, I know I don't have say over what you do normally. I just don't want none of you gettin' wrapped up in this whole steaming mess. You just watch your backs. Now, this is an order. Me, Zoe and Jayne get into trouble you take Serenity, and you stay away, dong ma? Don't go being heroes. Heroes gets themselves shot or worse. I don't wanna be cleanin' up blood, has a habit of gettin' under your nails." Mal leans back and gives the crew a chance to let his little speech sink in.

Across the table Kaylee looks slightly panicked by the prospects, she tried to put a brave face on by smiling sweetly, but her eyes give her away. They're wide, slipped out of focus. No doubt imagining what terrible things might befall them. Inara smiles at her lovingly, puts her hand on Kaylee's and gives it a reassuring squeeze. Kaylee looks up at her, and sighs smiling a little wider. She busies herself with the cloth, mopping up nonexistent coffee spills so she doesn't have to give anyone eye contact.

Simon watches the pretty mechanic carefully. He frowns down at his hands, tapping his thumb against the knuckle of the other hands first finger, and bites his lip. He's annoyed at himself for letting his crippling shyness get in the way of being a comfort to Kaylee. He glances up at her and drops his eyes quickly when he sees her gazing at him softly, her eyes slightly out of focus and watery. He flushes slightly, his cheeks turning a pale pink. Inara notices the flush in his cheeks, and smiles to herself.

Beside Simon, Wash is staring angrily at the mug of coffee cupped in his hands. He looks up from it to give Zoe a sidelong look of displeasure, and worry at this new information. Zoe puts her hand on his thigh and he puts his hand on top of hers, entwining their fingers together tightly.

"Its really that bad? We've had threats like this before, what makes this so different from the others? I mean, lets face, it we've had a lot." Wash asks Mal, desperate for some little ray of sunshine.

"I don't rightly know. He's an unknown quantity, not like Badger where we know the lay'a the land before we head in. We've only worked one job with Ivan before now. To be truthful, I don't see our business partnership lastin' the rest of the day." Mal replies. Wash squeezes his eyes closed, biting back an expletive.

Zoe holds his hand tightly in hers. She hated it when Wash was like this, all tense and worrying. It wasn't in her man to be like this. It made him irrational and it made her nervous, and she didn't like to be nervous before a job. Nervous people more often than not caused accidents to happen, and she wasn't in the habit of causing accidents unless ordered to.

She strokes his thumb gently with her own, and his hand relaxes. Wash looks up at her, and gives her a tiny hopeful smile. That's enough for Zoe. She knows that everything is going to be okay if her man gives her a smile, even if it's the smallest of smiles.

The crew begins to disperse. Simon walks from the table quickly to check on his sister. Wash and Zoe head straight to their bunk, already wrapped in each others arms. Jayne heads for the cargo hold to do some weights, Book follows a few seconds later to spot him. Kaylee walks numbly back to the engine room. Mal and Inara are the only ones who remain seated at the table.

Mal rubs his face with his both hands having removed the sling for his arm. The pain has subsided, and after a small argument with Simon the doctor agreed to remove the restricting sling on strict order not to overuse it. Not that Mal had paid any attention to him.

Inara sips her coffee, and watches as Mal opens his eyes, blinking at the table top. He leans his chin on the palm of his hand, half covering his mouth with it.

"Do you think-"

"I don't know, Inara, so please, don't ask me. I'm not psychic, you ask them kinda questions to the girl." Mal butts in, his voice muffled from leaning on his hands.

"I was going to say, do you think that we should take off once we've dropped you off?" Inara says with an angry inflection.

Mal lifts his head off his hand, and stares at her, stunned. He thinks it over carefully, blinking several times.

"As good as that idea is, I think it might only provoke Ivan. Not a lot of trust there if the ship carrying the man you wanna see fly's off. Gives a bad impression." Mal explains.

"And you always make a good impression don't you?" Inara asks sarcastically arching an eyebrow.

Mal just pouts at her. He gets up quickly from his seat, and heads for his bunk still rubbing at his aching shoulder.

"Where are you going?" Inara calls out.

"I'm goin' to my bunk," he turns and points at her, "And if you follow me, woman, I will surely throw you off this ship. And I won't slow down 'fore I do it."

* * *

_Persephone: Space Docks_

It's midday on Persephone, the bright white sun catches Serenity's engines as she comes into land making them shine bright. Serenity alights with grace in a small space between two larger, and ugly looking transport ships. It's hard for Serenity not to look appealing with broken down transporters all around her, then again Kaylee takes great pride in her work and that includes giving the outside of the ship a once over every now and then.

The only thing that shows her up is a big shiny unmarked ship, three spaces down. It was all black panels and tinted fore windows. Whoever owned her, they had money in abundance. Next to her, Serenity looked just as bad as the rest. Then again, the bullet marks in Serenity's hull panels were also giving her a major disadvantage in the running for prettiest ship in dock.

Her engines wind down, and the airlock ramp descends slowly. Jayne and Mal walk down the still opening ramp. Zoe hangs back a second to give her husband a long tender kiss. Jayne grimaces as he catches them out of the corner of his eye. Mal ignores them entirely, and he adjusts the collar of his clean shirt in what he thinks is a business like manor.

As they get to the bottom of the ramp, and step onto the weather worn asphalt a group of four burly looking men walk towards them. Each and every one of them sports one of a wide array of different firearms slung around their waists. Serenity closes up as the two groups walk slowly towards each other in a standoffish way. From the cargo bay Kaylee watches tensely until they are hidden from view by the ascending ramp.

Mal surveys the group deducing which of the men would be likely to pick a fight first. He picks the tallest member of the group that's covered in tattoos, and has an assault rifle swung low over one shoulder. Mal makes a conscious decision to talk to him.

"We're here to talk to the organ grinder, not his monkeys." Mal says calmly.

The tattooed man stares at him for a second then nods for the group to disperse. As they move aside they reveal Ivan Moskowitz, a skinny middle aged man dressed entirely in black. Everything about this shady little man screams rat. He has a pale, gaunt face, his nose is long, and pointed, and his top teeth protrude over onto his lower lip giving him the perfect look of a rat. His greasy dark hair falls in curtains either side of his face obscuring his eyes from view most of the time. His eyes are small watery and set into deep, dark sockets. Despite his incredibly skinny form that makes him look like you could snap him like a twig, there's something indefinable about him that gives him dominance over the group of men. Then again, perhaps its just money. He sidles forward, checking over his shoulder shiftily, his eye twitching involuntarily.

"Malcolm, I'd rather we spoke somewhere a little less…" he watches as two Feds patrolling the docks, "Obvious. The town docks are hardly a place for businesslike conversation." he adds once he's checked the feds have moved on.

His voice is surprisingly deep, and for Jayne - who has never met him - it comes as a surprise. Mal looks darkly at Zoe and she gives a slow incline of her head her jaw tightening. She gets the message plain and simple, be ready for a fight.

"Where you thinkin'?" Mal asks cheerily.

"There's a little bar off the main street, The Dragon Bowl Inn. It's always quiet. S'a good place for a confidential kinda chat." Ivan replies, his eye twitching violently.

Mal and Jayne look at each other, unnerved by the Ivan's involuntary tic. Mal nods once to Ivan with a smile, and holds his hand out to show the way. Ivan's men make to follow them, but they disperse with a lazy wave of Ivan's hand. Jayne keeps a hand close to his gun as they seamlessly melt into the crowd like they were never there.

* * *

_Serenity: Bridge_

Serenity's bright sunlit bridge is deathly quiet. Wash is sat at the main console, chewing his nails nervously. At this rate he'll be down to the quick in no time. His eyes are fixed unblinkingly out of the viewport. Every so often his eyes will slip to the scanner showing the Cortex feed for this planet, but it soon returns to the viewport.

Kaylee is sat in the co-pilots seat, also staring out of the front viewport. Her eyes focused on something in the distance as she thinks how she can fix the steering. That is when she's not wondering how everything's going with the Captain, which is most of the time. She absentmindedly plays with a wrench in her hands, twisting it over and over and throwing it from one hand to another.

"You think it's goin' 'kay?" Kaylee asks Wash softly.

"I'm trying to stop thinking."

"How's that goin'?"

"Not good."

"I really hope they're okay." Kaylee mutters to herself. Wash's eyebrows knit together and he nods.

He really is trying not to think about what could be happening, but it's proving to be very difficult. Don't worry, Zoe had said to him. Like he could do that, he always worried when she said that. When she says something like that then it almost always means that they're in a bad situation. In fact when she says that, it just makes him even more tense and on edge until her safe return. It was taking every ounce of self control not to march down that ramp and demand his wife back from the captain. Don't worry, fat chance of that happening, lambie-toes.

The bridge has dissolved into silence again, only broken by the clicking of Kaylee's wrench as she twists it in her hands again. Wash taps his finger on the arm of his chair impatiently, then leans forward, and picks up one of his dinosaurs. He rolls it over in his hand, then picks up another. He glances over to Kaylee who is watching him out of the corner of her eye. He holds out the T-rex to her.

"Do you want to be Rexie?" he asks her in all seriousness.

Kaylee smiles and reaches out to take it from him. There's a loud metallic clunk from behind them, and they both look round as white smoke begins to fill the room. They both jump to their feet, and Wash begins to panic, dropping Rexie.

"Fire," he yells, "W-we got fire!"

Beside him Kaylee frowns and holds a shaking hand up to her head, swaying slightly. She stumbles back and her eyes begin to droop closed. She falls to the floor, and Wash rushes to her side. He leans his back against the console, and cradles Kaylee in his arms as he shakes her.

"Kay? Kaylee?" yells slapping her gently on the face.

He frowns as his eyes begin closing involuntarily. God, he was awful tired. He shakes his head, trying to stay awake.

"Wait, that isn't fire that's… oh sh-" he trails off, and slides down the side of the console.

His head droops down until it's leaning gently on the top of Kaylee's head.

* * *

Serenity: Med Bay

Simon, Inara and Book are chatting in the infirmary as Simon deep cleans the instruments he used to patch up Mal with a liquid spray. The remainder of the pot of coffee has been moved in here, and over it they're discussing the captain.

"… I know what you mean Shepherd, and I completely understand that he's got to be strong. But…" Inara says, shrugging her shoulders, and sighing.

"He's the captain, he has to be. He has to keep Jayne in check." Book says smiling.

"All hail THAT." Simon mutters.

"I could see he was in pain and it just… drove me mad that he was so egotistical. He wouldn't even admit it." Inara says angrily, a frown forming on her pretty face.

"The man's a walking ego, I understood that five minutes after I met him." Simon chimes in.

"Maybe so, but he's good to his crew, his friends." Book says leaning back on the counter behind him.

Simon nods in agreement, pulling open a draw and placing his scalpels away.

"That's always been the way with Mal." Inara agrees, also nodding.

"I knew that from the moment I met him. Remember the punching? Twice? But, he's been good to River and me. It's really beginning to feel like a proper home now and I know Mal has got his eye open for any trouble." Simon says, putting the last of his equipment away in one of the cupboards.

Inara smiles at him, happy that the doctor has managed to settle in on Serenity so easily. There's a strange clanging noise and a small cylindrical object rolls into the infirmary emitting pearly white smoke. Invisible hands shut the door trapping Simon, Inara and Book in the room. Simons eyes grow wide and he runs to the door, kicking the object across thee infirmary in his desperation to get to the door. He gets to the door and begins to pound it with his fists, every hit making the door shudder with a dull thud.

"Let me out," he yells desperately "Kaylee! River! RIVER!" He slams his fists on the door harder.

Behind him, Inara and Book slowly sink to the floor as the smoke finally overwhelms them. Simons swings at the door get slower and slower, each one an effort. He gives up, turning round and pressing his back against the door. Making a small helpless noise in his throat, he slides down the door until he's sitting on the floor. His eyes begin to close, no matter how desperately he tries to keep them open.

"River…Kay-Kaylee…" he mumbles before he passes out, falling onto his side.


	6. Chapter 5: Smelled A Rat

**Chapter Five**  
- Smelled A Rat -

_Persephone: The Dragon Bowl Inn_

Ivan opens the emerald green, saloon style doors wide enough for Mal, Jayne and Zoe to enter the Dragon Bowl Inn. It's a small establishment with a large bar that needs a damn good clean, red bowls of peanuts are stationed periodically down the bar, they look like they've been there a good long while.

There's a few beaten mahogany tables and chairs in the space beyond the bar, none of them are occupied and all of them old and rickety. The walls are painted a deep red and there's dark wood panelling on the lower half of the walls, the decor makes the inn look very dark even though there are many strings of multicoloured fairy lights swaged along the beams of the low ceiling. The pillars holding up the roof are carved into the shape of Chinese dragons covered in faded gilt, holding in their mouths grimy, glass balls with fluorescent red lights within, along with the strings of fairy lights, they are the only source of light in the windowless place.

This tiny bar has the look of somewhere that was once a very popular and high market place to drink, but years of poor management and better bars opening in the surrounding city has pushed it out of peoples memories.

The group of four walk towards the bar. Ivan breaks off from the little group and heads for a tiny little table right at the back of the inn with a good view of the front doors. He nods for Mal to continue without looking at him, instead his eyes are darting about the room nervously.

Mal cautiously turns to the bar, his eyes following Ivan's back to the table. The toothless, balding bartender is shining a glass with a filthy old cloth, he holds Mal with a contemptuous stare. Mal goes to lean on the bar casually, but has second thoughts upon taking a good look at the sticky bar top. The bartender glares at him as if daring him to say something.

"Three beers please." Mal says with a winning smile.

The bartenders eyes shift to Ivan and he throws his cloth down and heads over to a noisy fridge in the corner. Jayne clears his throat loudly behind Mal and Mal rolls his eyes.

"Sorry, two beers and a whiskey." he calls to the bartender.

The bartender nods sharply and puts a bottle back into the fridge. Zoe looks over her shoulder at Ivan, she looks back at Mal, a frown forming on her normally placid face.

"Sir, do you think it's wise to be drinkin' at a time like this?" she asks, leaning on a bar mat having also noticed the state of the bar.

"We put his mind at ease by havin' a drink, don't wanna spook him." Mal replies, watching the bartender closely as he pours Jayne's whiskey just in case the old coot decides to try something.

Zoe and Mal glance back at Ivan. He's looking mighty shifty, checking the door every couple of seconds, his tick is worse making his left eye jump violently and he's incredibly sweaty. Mal frowns deeply at Zoe.

"Looks like sumat already did though." he says in a low voice.

The bartender puts two dusty bottles of beer and a whiskey in a grotty looking glass on the bar. Mal throws a crumpled note to the bartender.

"Keep the change," he mutters, "No feds." he adds in an aside to the bartender.

The bartender raises his eyebrows and gives him a toothless grin. Suddenly he is all smiles now that's money has changed hands. Mal picks up the drinks, he has to pull quite hard to unstick them from the bar, and walks over to the table, Zoe walking confidently next to him. They pick two shabby looking stools and pull them up to the table. Mal sits next to Ivan so he can also get a good view of the doors and Zoe sits with her back to the bar, her eyes never leaving Ivan's sweaty face.

Jayne hangs back at the bar. He fixes the bartender with a steely look. He tries to work out if he could take this man. He's got a smallish frame and he's kinda old. Yeah he could take him, easy. It was quite a good while since he'd gotten into a good brawl and he was kinda itchin' for one.

Jayne holds his hand out, his other hand on his gun. Reluctantly the bartender hands over the money Mal just paid him with. Jayne pockets it and gives the bartender a nasty grin. He takes a handful of peanuts and moves off to the table.

Jayne pulls out a stool from the table and sits down heavily, leaning his back against the wall. He drops the peanuts on the table, they scatter everywhere. He reaches forward and pulls his whiskey towards him eagerly. Its been weeks since the amber liquid had touched his lips and he was going to enjoy it no matter how cheap and nasty it was. Whiskey was whiskey.

Mal slams his hand on the top of the glass and raises his eyebrows at Jayne. Jayne's lip twitches up in annoyance and sighs pulling the money out of his pocket, handing it over to Mal. He picks up a peanut and goes to stuff it into his mouth.

"I really wouldn't do that if I were you." Zoe says watching him.

"And why not?" Jayne grunts.

"If you get ill…" Zoe raises her eyebrows at the end of the sentence, communicating something silently.

Jayne sniffs the peanut, pulls a disgusted face and drops it back on the tabletop. Ivan watches them closely, wiping the sweat off his top lip with the back of an open hand. Mal takes a sip of his beer then nods to Ivan to start talking.

"I'm glad you came." Ivan mutters, wiping his wet forehead with his sleeve.

"Well we had to, what with your kindly threats." Mal says lightly.

"That was all jus' flimflam to get y'here. I wasn't gonna follow it up. Look there's a problem."

"The kinda problem where you git shot?" Jayne asks, placing a hand on his gun again and lazily sniffing his whiskey. He eyes Ivan with an unkindly look.

Ivan's eye twitches violently at Jayne's threat and his hands begin to shake uncontrollably. Jayne smirks at Ivan's reaction, he always found it amusing when people got afraid of him.

"It's the feds, they've cut off mosta my trade links and spread rumours 'bout me to all my other… clients. That's why you got attacked. But it's worse than that." Ivan continues shifting his chair nervously away from Jayne.

"Define worse and define it quick." Mal says, his eyes narrow and his jaw tight.

"T-they sent an Alliance officer to me, asked me all kinds of questions 'bout who I deal with, askin' for no names, just the ships I see. Soon as they heard Firefly Class they were off."

"They tell you why?"

"Not really. Sumat 'bout some girl. Look, they said they'd kill me if I told you. I got to reckoning you'd kill me more if I didn't and you'd prolong it." Ivan's eye twitches again and he wrings his hands together.

Mal leans back in his chair, his hand still gripped tightly around the bottle of beer, his knuckles white in utter rage. He throws Jayne a look. Jayne takes a deep breath, downs his whiskey in one, gets to his feet and punches Ivan in the face. Mal also gets to his feet and pulls Ivan up by the collar, one handed and pins him against the wall. Ivan struggles weakly, but Mal holds him firm.

"You're not telling' us the whole landscape of things are you?" Mal asks in a calm tone.

"Please, please, I-I don't…" Ivan sobs.

Blood pours down his chin from his swelling nose and as he breaths bubbles of blood form at his nostrils. Mal nods at Jayne again and Jayne punches Ivan in the stomach knocking all the wind out of him. It takes a few seconds for Ivan to recover himself and his breath.

"They asked me when you was next landin', asked me to set up a meetin', that's all I know I swear! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please don't kill me!" Ivan splutters holding his hands up to his nose, blood pouring through his fingers.

Mal shoots a look at Zoe and he drops Ivan who slumps heavily to the floor clutching his nose and his stomach protectively. The two of them run from the bar back to Serenity.

Jayne kneels down beside Ivan, who is slumped against the wall, shielding his already bruised and bloody face from further attack from the hulking merc. Jayne moves in real close until their inches away from each other.

"You speak one word to the Feds, I'll personally come back and cut that devil tongue outta your ugly little head, _dong ma_?" he threatens, his hand curled around the hilt of his knife.

Ivan nods his head furiously, spraying blood all over the floor and Jayne's grimy boots. Ivan's eyes are wild with fear and he flinches back as Jayne reaches towards him, but he just grabs a handful of Ivan's coat and wipes the blood off his boots. Jayne, satisfied that the rat is suitably scared, runs from the bar in pursuit of Mal and Zoe.

From behind the bar, the bartender watches him go with narrowed eyes. He peers over at Ivan who is struggling to his feet, one hand on his nose the other on his bruised ribs.

"That's 12.70 f'the drinks." he yells over, an evil looking toothless grin on his ugly old face.

* * *

_Serenity: River's Room_

River is asleep in her tiny dorm room, curled up in a tight ball like a cat on the flowery duvet. Her long hair flows over the pillow and hangs over the side of the bed. At some point Simon must have come to check on her because she been covered up with a small threadbare, patchwork quilt to keep her warm. Judging by the pretty flowers stitched over the larger holes in the patchwork, the quilt is of Kaylee's design. She looks peaceful.

Her eyes suddenly flick open wide. She is immediately aware of her surroundings. She gets up slowly, the quilt falling off her tiny frame, and swings her legs over the side of the bed. She has a strange itchy feeling at the back of her head, an itchy feeling that makes her think someone is watching her. It's not the familiar kind of itch she gets when she knows her brother is watching her from the gap in the door or when Kaylee watches her draw at the table. No this is someone new, someone she doesn't know. She tilts her head to one side, listening keenly for anything that could give her a clue to who it is, but the whole ship is as silent as the grave.

Now that worries her. She should be able to hear something. Like her brother walking up to her door, pressing his ear against it and walking away again, which he did at least thirty times a day. Or Book praying in his room, maybe even Wash talking to his plastic dinosaurs. But there's nothing, not even Kaylee talking to the engine cheerily. The ship is uncommonly silent. She digs her toes into the thin carpet and stands up.

"Simon?" she calls out. There's no reply.

Her heart beats faster as she tries to work out whats going on, her brain working overtime. They couldn't have all left the ship. Mal would never allow her to stay onboard by herself in case she flew the ship into a cliff or something. Not that she ever could do that. Math would keep her in the air and she'd much rather be able to fly without the need of a ship.

River shakes her head. The drugs were definitely wearing off, she'd just managed to get lost in a train of thought. She wouldn't let herself do that again, there were things to investigate. She had to focus. She was a detective. She slides her room door open as silently as she can and steps into the passenger hallway without a sound.

* * *

_Serenity: Passenger Dorm Hall_

She slowly walks towards the med bay, her bare feet not making a sound on the cold floor. A noise alerts her and she freezes on the spot. She swings round, her hair whipping around her body. In front of her, stood just inside the door of Shepherd Books room is a tall man dressed in a steel gray outfit, the gray of an Alliance officer.

"Hello River, my name is Locus." River stares at him wide eyes, caught completely of guard by this stranger.

His voice is grave, yet strangely soothing. He smiles at her softly. It's the kind of smile Book wears whenever he speaks with her. She backs away having trouble deciding if she should kick him in the head or run. She looks over her shoulder. Through the window she can just about see Inara and Book slumped on the floor. She assumes her brother is in there too but she can't see him. She also figures that Wash and Kaylee have also been incapacitated. Mal, Zoe and Jayne were too far away to get her in time, so calling for help won't do any good.

Her breathing becomes erratic and her hands ball into fists. This man has harmed her brother and her friends, she's going to make him pay. She takes a single step forward and begins to raise her fists, moving into a better position to take this man on.

"_Eta kooram nah smech._" the man mutters.

River frowns. She takes a deep breath, her eyebrows shooting up in surprise.

"Oh… that's ridiculous." she breaths softly.

She falls gently to the floor, fast asleep. The Alliance officer slowly smiles a merciless grin.


	7. Chapter 6: Rude Awakening

**Chapter Six**  
- Rude Awakening -

_Serenity: Bridge_

On the bridge of Serenity, the smoke has finally cleared, and the little smoke bomb has fizzled out. Wash and Kaylee are gently slumbering in a beam of bright golden sunlight. Kaylee is still in Wash's arms, and his head is leaning gently on the top of her head. Judging by the soft rhythmic snores, they've been asleep a good while.

Wash begins to stir, his eyes fluttering open slowly and reluctantly. He lifts his head heavily, and rubs his eyes with the heels of his hands, blinking several times in the bright light. His head feels woolly, the same feeling you get after drinking heavily the previous night. He rubs his hand along his cheek, and wipes the drool off his chin with a grimace. His neck aches from leaning down, his mouth is dry from snoring, and admittedly drooling. It genuinely feels like the mother of all hangovers is plaguing him.

Kaylee begins to awaken as Wash begins to recover. She opens her eyes slowly and reluctantly settles back into Wash's lap. She sighs contentedly, and curls into a tighter ball wrapping her arms around Wash's knee. She could quite happily go back to sleep, she's just feels so tired. But she cracks one eye open, and at the sight of a bemused looking Wash looking down on her, she opens both eyes wide in shock.

Wash and Kaylee both look at each other, frozen with shock for a split second, their eyes open wide. They jump away from each other in surprise.

"What happened? Wha-what the hell happened?" Wash splutters.

Kaylee shakes her head, finding it hard to form any words in her confused state. She quickly stops shaking her head because her brain feels like its being swirled around in a colander. She blinks hard, pinching the bridge of her nose and leans back onto her feet, still kneeling on the floor rather than attempting to get up. She thinks if she gets to her feet right now she will definitely be sick, that or fall flat on her face.

"I dunno…" she finally manages to say.

She breathes heavily, and smacks her lips together, they feel dry. She would kill for a glass of water right now. She frowns, and wipes a hand along her forehead, looking down to see a string of drool on her palm.

"Eww!" she yells.

She frantically rubs her skin, and wipes her hands on Wash's shirt.

"My bad…" he mutters, smirking a little.

They both make the decision to get up, holding onto each other for support, and looking around for the cause of their collapse and deep embarrassment. Kaylee grits her teeth hard as her head really begins to pound. Wash freezes as he straightens up, a look of pure dread forms on his face.

"Oh God, Zoe!" he mutters.

He throws himself into his pilots chair and flicks a few switches, attempting to contact Zoe's radio. Kaylee walks shakily towards the open door, gripping its frame until her knuckles turn white. She frowns as she kicks the smoke bomb clumsily with her foot. She picks it up carefully, turning the small cylindrical piece of metal over in her lithe hands.

"Come on, come on!" Wash mutters furiously under his breath.

Either Zoe deliberately isn't picking up because she is busy negotiating or she's out of range or… she's in serious trouble. Wash is hoping against all hope that it's not the latter. He doesn't even know how long he'd been out for and that was one of the things that was worrying him the most. They could have been trying to contact them for hours for all he knew. Kaylee looks up from the bomb finding it hard to focus properly.

"Wash, look at this." Kaylee breathes softly, returning her un-focusing eyes to the smoke bomb.

Wash turns his chair towards her and frowns at the little bomb in her hand. He practically jumps to his feet and takes it from her. He turns it over, looking at it closely. Its nothing that he's familiar with. But then again, he's also having trouble focusing properly.

Its very small, no bigger than a nine volt battery with a pressure release button on the . On the bottom of the bomb is a little Alliance symbol.

"The bastards drugged us." Wash growls, a hint o surprise in his voice.

Kaylee's eyes grow wider, and she leans away from Wash, taking a sharp incline of breath.

"Simon!" she exclaims.

She turns tail, and with wobbly legs, runs from the bridge as fast as she can in her still groggy state. Wash glances back at the scanner, in two minds as whether to follow the mechanic of try to get hold of Zoe again. He realises that it's probably not a good idea to let Kaylee run around the ship on her own after what's just happened to them, there could be anyone on this ship just lying in wait for them. Zoe was probably fine. She was tough, she could look after herself, and she was more than likely on her way back here anyway. He pockets the bomb, and follows her.

* * *

_Serenity: Med Bay_

Kaylee pulls open the med bay doors, and nearly steps right on Simon who is lying curled in a tight ball just inside the door. He actually looks like his sister more than ever in this moment in time, sleeping as soundly as he is. Looks like whatever took Wash and Kaylee out took them out here, too. Wash steps over him, and heads straight to Inara and Book who are starting to stir. Kaylee kneels next to Simon, and turns him over gently, holding his head tenderly in her arms.

"Oh, Simon, Simon hun?" she says, shaking him gently to wake him up.

He frowns, and sighs opening his eyes a little. She strokes his face softly, moving the hair off his forehead with a finger. He slowly pushes himself into a sitting position, leaning heavily on Kaylee to sit up giving a loud groan. He coughs and holds his hand to his brow, his head is swimming. Kaylee lays a hand on his shoulder, and he turns to look at her with swollen, puffy red eyes.

"What happened?" he asks confused.

"We were askin' ourselves the same thing." Kaylee says, shrugging.

"My head." Simon groans.

Simon holds his head in his hands and rubs his temples with his fingers. His head feels fuzzy, and he suddenly understands what River means when she says 'everything feels cloudy'. He sits up straight and tries to get his thoughts in order, it's proving difficult though.

"River…" Simon mutters, he begins to rub his eyes fiercely, then freezes. "RIVER!" he repeats, his eyes growing wide.

He heaves himself to his feet shakily, and staggers out of the med bay. Kaylee hurries swiftly after him, throwing a look of panic at Wash.

* * *

_Serenity: River's Dorm_

Simon pulls the door to River's dorm room open roughly, and slams it back so far that it actually jumps off its tracks, swinging there pointlessly. He stands frozen in the door breathing heavily, and stares wide eyed at the empty bed. "She's gone… she's gone, oh dear God she's gone." Simon mumbles, blinking several times.

"Maybe she's somewhere else on Serenity. Hidin' or somethin'." Kaylee suggests, trying to snap Simon out of it.

Simon nods slowly, his breathing still coming in sharp bursts. He tries desperately to keep control of his emotions. He staggers back out of the room, and straight into Kaylee who holds him in her arms. He turns to her, tears welling in his eyes.

"Oh, honey." Kaylee sighs. She pulls him into a gentle hug.

She has to stand on her tiptoes for him to rest his head on her shoulder. Simon pulls away, his eyes out of focus and misty.

"I-I protected her, I protected her for so long," he mutters, "H-how can she be gone?"

Wash and a wobbly looking Inara walk sedately up to the doctor and Kaylee. They've left Book in the med bay to look at the smoke bombs. They frown in puzzlement at Kaylee who shakes her head, tears welling in her own eyes. Inara throws her hands up to her mouth in shock, her eyes also brimming with shocked tears.

"She's my little sister." Simon continues.

Kaylee looks past him at Inara and Wash. Wash has his arm around Inara, and she is leaning into him weakly, her hand still over her mouth.

"Look for her, check everywhere." Kaylee says in a strong tone.

She realises that she has to be incredibly strong for Simon right now, so she blinks back her tears, and faces him again. Wash and Inara nod and split up to go and search the ship for River. Kaylee hugs Simon again and he holds her tightly back. For once there's no tension between the two. No unspoken feelings, no tension. Not even a hint of shyness. Right now it's purely one friend supporting the other in their time of need.

"I-I she…" Simon stutters.

Kaylee places her hand on his cheek, and turns his face towards hers, stroking his cheek with her thumb.

"Shh, shh its 'kay. We'll find her. The cap'n'll find her." Kaylee says softly.

She moves her hand, and places it gently on the back of his begins to stroke his hair soothingly. Simon nods, tears streaming down his face. He leans into Kaylee's shoulder, and buries his head in her hair. He doesn't know what to do with himself. His sister is his world, he gave up everything for her. He lifts his face out of Kaylee's sweet smelling hair, and pulls away from her drying his tears with the palms of his hands. He looks at Kaylee who is gently looking back at him her face soft and concerned. He takes a deep steadying breath, and walks forlornly into Rivers room. He sits on the bed heavily. Kaylee puts a brave face on and sits on the bed next to him. She picks up the quilt that was covering River folding it neatly.

"She loves that thing." Simon says his voice quivering slightly.

Kaylee places the neatly folded quilt on Simons knee. He runs his hands along the edge of it, and stares at the flowery pattern, tracing the patterns with his index finger. Kaylee has never seen him like this before, so lost and alone. Its beginning to worry her.

Simon has no idea what to do, he's completely lost. The only thing that's keeping him grounded right is Kaylee. He rubs his eyes roughly, and takes several deep breaths to calm himself down. The silence in the room is actually killing him.

Kaylee puts a comforting hand on Simon's own, and rubs his fingers in a comforting manner. It takes her a second for her to fight back the overwhelming feeling that she's about to burst into tears.

"Trust me, hun, everythin'll be okay. We'll find her." She says calmly.

"I do trust you."

* * *

_Serenity: Inara's Shuttle_

Inara runs into her shuttle and checks under the bed. There has been many a time that she has found River hiding under there, either because she was playing hide and seek with Kaylee, or when she was having a particularly bad day, and she was hiding from the 'bad men' as she called them. Sometimes River would join her and just lie under the bed, her ear pressed to the cold metal of the shuttle floor listening to the vibration of Serenity's engines in silence.

Inara straightens up and turns around, opening the curtains that hides the controls to the shuttle. Wash runs into the shuttle, gasping for breath. He's been all over the ship, including the maintenance hatch in the engine room, and the lower observation port on the bridge.

"Any sign?" Inara asks.

"No. Not even in the smuggling hatch in the Cargo Bay." Wash replies, shaking his head.

Inara staggers back and sinks into the shuttles pilots chair behind her. She swallows hard, trying not to loose her composure and cry. In the short time River had been aboard the ship Inara had actually became very fond of her, and her brother too. It was nice to have people around who were not brought up on the raggedy edge of the black, so the shock of River going missing was actually proving to be a very tough thing to take. Wash doesn't know what to do with his hands, so he puts them on his hips, and takes several deep breaths.

"I'll check the Cortex." he says, still a little breathlessly, walking over to Inara's Cortex screen.

He sits down heavily on a little padded red stool, and lifts a silk curtain to reveal the little Cortex screen set into the wall of the shuttle. He enters a few commands on the touch screen, and a little Cortex Connecting message appears on the screen. Before the screen even comes up with the 'Cortex Connection Established' message, there is several loud bangs from the cargo bay. Inara and Wash snap their heads towards the shuttle door.

"River?" Inara asks, her eyes wide in hope.

"No. That'll be Zoe." Wash mutters, and he rushes out of the shuttle to his wife.

Inara follows him to the door as her Cortex screen beeps.

* * *

_Serenity: Cargo Bay_

Wash runs down the stairs, jumping down the last few steps, and pulls opens the small access door set into the ramp. Mal, Zoe and Jayne hurry through it, Jayne slamming the door closed behind him in anger.

"River's missin' ain't she?" Mal asks, his face red and his breath rapid from running the whole way back to the ship.

Wash frowns at Mal confused as to how he already knows River's missing.

"Yes," he mutters, "How'd you know?"

"Ivan." Mal growls.

Wash's mouth falls open as Mal runs past him and straight up to the bridge only stopping briefly to place a hand on Inara's shoulder in reassurance. Jayne, not a hurry in him, casually walks through to the common area. In his head he isn't all that bothered by the girl being kidnapped. Quite frankly, he thinks it's a Godsend, one less thing to worry about. Now only if they could get rid of the young doctor too, he'd be happy and things could get back to normal at last. Well, okay he isn't overly happy at the situation. After all there was no coin exchanged for turning her over to the feds, but you can't win everything.

Wash watches him go, his mouth open. He's appalled at Jayne's careless nature. He looks to Zoe, his face still red and sweaty from running around the ship. Zoe looks back at him equally as shocked by Jayne's demeanour .

"What's going on? River's been taken by who?" Wash demands.

Zoe just shakes her head and goes to follow Mal up the stairs. Wash grabs her hand and pulls her back off the step a little more roughly than he normally would.

"Don't walk away from me. You're not keeping me out of this one, sugarcakes, not this time. There's a young girls life in danger here… in fact ain't we all kinda in danger right now?" he says quickly before Zoe walks away.

Zoe knew this was going to happen. She knew from the moment she stepped out of that grimy, _go se_ pit of a bar that her husband would be like this. She wasn't going to be able to escape it this time and truth be told she really didn't want to lie to him and tell him everything was going to be okay, because she just didn't know if it was. Wash leans towards Zoe and raises his eyebrows expectantly, fixing her with a fierce gaze. Zoe takes a deep breath.

"They don't know much about us, just what kinda ship we're in. They know about River and it seems that's all they're bothered about." she says with a small smile of reassurance.

Wash leans back and lets his shoulders relax a little but not letting them drop all the way.

"Let me guess, 'they' are the Alliance right?" Wash asks.

"Yeah. Or some kind of special force connected with the Academy that River was rescued from. How'd they do it?" Zoe asks.

"Do what?"

"Get her outta here without anyone knowin'?"

"Smoke bombs with some sorta sleeping powder in it, knocked all of us spark out for at least half an hour. Gave us one all one hell of a headache to boot. The Shepherd is taking a look at them now." Wash replies, walking up the stairs up to the bridge.

Zoe follows him, taking his hand in hers.


	8. Chapter 7: Tracks

**Chapter Seven**  
- Tracks -

_Serenity: Bridge_

"_Ni de feihua yi dui, gongzuo!_" Mal yells at the top of his lungs. In anger he kicks the pilot's chair, immediately regretting it as a sharp pain travels up his leg. Wash and Zoe enter the bridge as Mal slams his fist on the scanner in rage, splitting the glass in two with the force of the blow. He falls back into the pilots seat, and holds his hand up to his brow shakily.

"Sir?" Zoe asks, concerned by Mal's outburst.

Mal gets up from the pilot seat, and knocks a load of stuff off the dashboard including a few of Wash's plastic dinosaurs and an empty tin mug which falls with a stark clatter. They fall with a loud clatter to the floor.

"The cowardly _hwun dahn_… they've taken down our Cortex Connection." he spits, furiously.

Wash frowns and seats himself at the main console. He begins to press buttons and flick switches while Mal paces, trying to calm himself down. Zoe watches him pace from the doorway. His eyes are dark and his face is tight as if at any second he was going to let his rage surface again. But he manages to keep it under control, something Zoe had always admired about him. Her eyes flick over to Wash, who is still flicking switches and checking connections. His face is completely different to Mal's, his eyes are wide taking everything in as he concentrates. But no amount of concentration can hide the worry on her mans face, and she doesn't like that look. She's been on the receiving end of that look, and every time it pulled at her heart until she couldn't bare it any longer. But for a change he wasn't worrying about her.

After a few tense minutes Wash gives a single loud, "Ha!" and throws his hands into the air, "Not so smart after all." Wash says with a smile.

"What do you mean?" Mal asks, leaning over to look at the Cortex screen.

"I mean… they didn't do a good job, it was just encrypted, heavily. Nothing too drastic."

"And it's workin'?"

"Yeah."

"Good then do a search. Any ships, government or unmarked breakin' atmo in the last twenty minutes. All broad waves, all frequencies." Mal says quickly.

Wash gets right on it. Mal turns to leave and he halts at the sight of Zoe, arms folded, stood in the doorway.

"What we doin', Sir?" she asks.

"We're goin' after her." Mal replies plainly.

He walks past her without another word, she follows him.

* * *

_Serenity: Dining Area_

Mal pushes a chair roughly out of his way as he walks past the table.

"Sir, you can't be serious. This is an Alliance operation that's taken the girl. It's suicide you even thinkin' it." Zoe says.

Mal stops dead in his tracks and turns back to her. His face is hard and angry.

"Nobody steals from me. From US," he replies, "I promised when I took 'em in that I would look after the kid and she got snatched from right underneath our noses."

But that wasn't what Mal really wanted to say, he wanted to say how much he'd gotten fond of the girl, craziness aside. And the young doctor would probably end up getting his pretty head blown off his shoulders in any rescue attempt he made, and that would just send little Kaylee round the merry twist if that should happen. No he wasn't going to let this happen. He wasn't about to have his crew torn apart. And really, the Alliance was not going to steal anything else from him, not again. They'd already taken away almost everything he'd ever cared about, and there was no way he was going to let it happen to someone else.

Zoe smiles slightly, that's all she needed to hear. The girl may be a liability to them, but Zoe knew deep down inside that Mal really actually did care about her, and that he let her and the young doctor stay aboard for more that just to put the Alliances nose out of joint. He did it out of the goodness of his heart, something that Zoe saw very rarely in him these days.

* * *

_Serenity: Med Bay_

Mal walks at a lick through into the med bay where Jayne and Book are peering at something under the bright lights. Mal walks straight over to them, and looks down at the small smoke bombs. One of them has been disassembled and laid out for closer inspection. Book glances up at Mal, in his hand is a small screwdriver.

"They're standard issue smoke bombs, with a titanium shell and a capsule containing some sort of sleeping gas. See this little hole here," he shows Mal, who peers at the tiny hole carefully, "They're refillable." he informs Mal.

"This weren't no milk run, they was professional." Jayne adds, fiddling with several tiny screws in his hands from the dismantled bomb.

"One of these day's you'll tell me why a Shepherd like yourself knows so gorramn much about military ordinance." Mal says with a sidelong look at the preacher.

Book just smiles his knowing smile, and folds his arms. Mal takes the second smoke bomb from the table. He looks at the bottom and puffs his cheeks out.

"Alliance inscribed." Book says watching as Mal peers at the insignia on the bottom.

"This is a blast from the past." Mal sighs.

"They were used in the war." Book nods.

"Yeah, I remember these. Knocked out half of my battalion in less than a minute during a territory scrap on Eris."

"Ain't no honour in it." Jayne grunts.

"It was the war, not much honour in it to begin with." Mal sighs.

Jayne leans back on the stool he's sitting on and throws his hands behind his head, stretching luxuriously.

"Well then, we'd best be gettin' outta here, 'fore they come back for us too." he says with a slight grin.

"We'll be on our way once Wash has done the scan." Mal replies.

"You what? Scan f'what?"

"He's checking all the ships that have left since we got back."

"You're not seriously thinkin' 'bout goin' after that jingshen shichang de kid are you?"

"Better believe it."

"No ruttin' way! I ain't gettin' into trouble coz of some half crazed kid." Jayne yells.

Mal grits his teeth and glares at Jayne. His temper has a short fuse right now, and Jayne's just managed to ignite it.

"If you don't like the way I do things then you can leave, you know where the door is. I told the doctor that him and his sister would be safe on Serenity, and I intend to keep my word. Do you think that Simon's going to just sit here, and let his sister disappear into the ether?" Mal growls in a low voice.

Jayne stares right back at him, checking to see if Mal really meant what he was saying. He did, Jayne could tell that from the way Mal was holding himself, from the clenched jaw, and balled fists to that crazy ass look in his eye. Jayne just throws his hands into the air, letting them fall to his sides, and walks out of the med bay shaking his head. As he leaves, Wash's voice fills the room over the intercom.

"Mal, I ran a check, there was just the one ship. Carrying a new cargo. Destination is a large Alliance medical transporter near Renao," Wash's disembodied voice says calmly, "Do you want me to follow it?"

Mal walks quickly over to the intercom and hit's a button.

"Yeah, fast as this bird will go." Mal replies.

Serenity shudders and lifts into the air. Simon is stood in the doorway of the med bay looking at Mal, his eyes read and swollen.

"You're going after her?" he asks, his voice shaky and weak.

He looks stunned, and almost like he doesn't believe what he's just heard. Mal doesn't look him in the eye, instead he looks somewhere over Simon's shoulder.

"Yeah, she's part of my crew." Mal replies.

Looking at this kid now, his eyes dark, Mal can't help seeing a little of himself in the young doctor. Well, at least a part of himself that he used to have before the war. Simon takes a deep steadying breath, and releases it slowly. The rest of his body follows the breath, and he relaxes a little.

"You can't just walk in and take her." Simon replies with a sniff.

Mal folds his arm and nods his head, he was thinking the exact same thing.

"What do you suggest?"

* * *

_Serenity: Jayne's Bunk_

Jayne is pacing in the tiny space in his bunk. He cracks his knuckles and grunts as he pauses to think. It was bat crap insane that Mal was even thinking about going after the kid. Quite frankly, they were better off without. If only they'd taken the doc too, then this whole rutting mess would be over and done with and he could go back to sleeping without risking waking up with the girl hanging over him holding one of his guns to his head. He'd never quite gotten over that incident even though she did wholeheartedly apologize to him with them puppy dog eyes of hers.

But there was something niggling at him, something that he'd tried to keep locked away. And that was guilt. He felt guilty that the kid had been kidnapped, if only he'd been there to protect her. Gorramn it all if he ever saw Ivan again he'd run that little piece of human tzao gao through. Jayne rubs his head with both hands, battling with himself.

A part of him is glad that the danger has passed and he can just go back for being wanted by the feds for robbery. Another part of him is telling him that she's a little kid barely in her teens and if she's been taken back by the Alliance she'll have no life. And a tiny part of him wants to go back and give Ivan a good kicking.

He grits his teeth and cracks the knuckles of his left hand. He shakes his head and swings round, climbing the ladder and leaving his bunk. He must be just as bat crap insane as Mal to be even thinking about helping to get the moon brained kid back on the boat and safe.

* * *

_Serenity: Dining Area_

Kaylee is preparing tea at the stove, her back to the bridge. She takes a big sniff and dabs at her eyes with a flowery hanky. A few tears roll down her cheeks and drip onto the stove, each one making a little hissing sound as it hit's the hot electric ring. She puts the kettle on the stove and takes another big sniff, trying not to break into a sob. Jayne stops at the bottom of the stairs and frowns at her.

"Kaylee?" he says in a low tone.

Kaylee flinches back from the stove in shock and knocks the kettle to the floor. She turns and looks at Jayne reproachfully. Lines have formed on her face where the tears have cleaned away the thin layer of engine grease on her cheeks. She holds a shaky hand to her head and ducks down to clean up the mess, her bottom lip trembling.

Jayne walks over to help her, grabbing a cloth and mopping up the spilt tea as best he can, which as it turns out isn't very well at all. He just seems to be moving the mess around the floor. Kaylee just kneels there, the knees of her overalls soaking up the lukewarm tea. She stares at the kettle as Jayne cleans up around her, watching his reflection in the shiny metal of the kettles lid, her eyes wide. Tears stream down her face and drip freely into her lap, she makes no moves to stem the flow.

"Thank you." she mutters, her voice weak from crying.

"S'okay." Jayne grunts.

He never really knows what to do when faced with someone who was crying, especially if it was a woman. It made him feel awkward and uncomfortable and he never had a clue what to say to make things better. In this case he was pretty sure nothing he could say would make Kaylee stop crying. Kaylee follows his hand with her eyes as it picks up the kettle and replaces it on the stove. She picks up the lid, which has rolled under the counter, and holds it in her hands.

"Kay? You alright?" Jayne asks, peering at her eyes through the curtain of her hair.

"Yeah, it's just hard, you know to be strong." she replies.

She gets to her feet and puts the lid back on the kettle. Jayne also gets up and pays Kaylee awkwardly on the back. Kaylee puts her arms around him and cries softly. He hesitantly puts his arms around her and pats her on the back. He stands there patting her on the back and feeling like a complete idiot as Mal enters the dining area from the med bay and stops as he see's the two embracing in the kitchen.

"Am I interrupting something'?" Mal asks as he watches Jayne's poor attempt at comforting.

Jayne whips round shaking Kaylee free and stares at Mal, who is stood with his arms crossed near the end of the table.

"I… uh…" Jayne mumbles.

He throws the cloth he used to clean up the tea in the sink and rubs his hands together.

"I wanna help." Jayne says folding his arms too.

Mal and Kaylee raise their eyebrows. Now that was a turn up for the books.


	9. Chapter 8: Stasis

**Chapter Eight**  
- Stasis -

_Serenity: Dining Area_

The crew is once more gathered around the dining table. Simon is sat at the head of the table, staring at the bottom of his coffee mug, unable to make eye contact with anyone for risk of crying or a sudden outburst of anger which had suddenly become commonplace. The rest of the crew had begun to give him a very wide berth in case anything they said or did set him off on one.

"We use the medical uniforms we stole from Arial," he says slowly, his voice timid and quiet, "We still have River's stasis box…" he trails off and finally raises his head and looks watery eyed at the group around the table.

He sniffs and fights back a fresh wave of emotion.

"If we get one of you inside the box and into the medical transporters cargo hold. Once in we can locate River." he says.

"Then what?" Mal asks quickly.

"Then, we fight our way off the ship and then we… run."

"If that's the best plan then… I say we'd best go for it." Mal sighs.

Zoe up frowns at Mal, she really doesn't like the idea one single bit, God knows how many Alliance troops they'd have on a ship that big, but if there's no other way to get the kid back then so be it. There was going to be a lot of fighting.

"So who's gonna be in the box?" Mal asks, looking around the table.

"Any volunteers?" Simon adds, also looking around the table.

Jayne frowns and rubs his brow. The little niggling feeling of guilt is back. He shakes his head, unable to believe what he is about to do.

"I'll do it." he says loudly.

Everyone's eyes swivel towards him and stare at him in complete and utter bewilderment. It takes a few seconds for Simon to gather himself. He looks at Jayne in puzzlement and takes a deep breath.

"No offence Jayne, but I really doubt that you would fit in the box." he says, a slight flicker of amusement crossing his face.

Jayne nods and drops his eyes to the table top, embarrassed. The table falls quiet.

"I'll do it, I know I ain't no pixie but I ain't as… broad, as Jayne. I should be able to fit." Mal pipes up, shrugging.

"That would work. That would leave Jayne as our 'Alliance Guard' and Zoe as my assistant." Simon replies nodding.

"I'm sorry?" Zoe exclaims.

"_Shun muh?_"

"You're coming with us?"

"Of course. Why do you ask?"

"Kid you ain't exactly a crack shot with a gun, you'd just get in the way in a gunfight."

"You need me. I know all the medical terminology, and again, no offence, but you're going to be stepping into my world and there, my voice is obeyed." Simon adds in a hard voice, a deep angry frown on his face.

Zoe throws a sidelong look at Mal who looks just as surprised as she is. Both of them are wondering where this strong willed Simon has come from.

"I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but you are a wanted fugitive, son. Is it wise to be walking onto an Alliance ship as broad as brass?" Book says gently to Simon.

"Look I am not gonna let you talk me out of this, this is my sister we're talking about and she is in danger. I am not going to sit back and wait for the others to run off and save her while I'm twiddling my fingers waiting for information. And if they wanted me that bad then why didn't they take me when the took River?" Simon snaps.

Book raises his eyebrows and leans back in his seat. An awkward silence settles upon the table.

* * *

_Transporter: Cargo Hold_

Locus is stood curtly, his hands behind his back staring down into an open stasis box before him. Inside it is a naked River, curled in a tiny ball and sleeping peacefully. Medical supervisors move around the box, checking the box's settings, all of them are being observed by a young tall, skinny, bespectacled doctor with short wavy blonde hair, wearing the pale off white gown of an Alliance Doctor.

"I can't believe it," he says in a posh English accent, "You got her back to us, Mr…"

"It's just Locus. That's my designation and that is what you will address me as."

"Just how did you do it?" the doctor asks, pressing for more information on the retrieval of the girl.

Locus turns to him and fixes him with a steely gaze.

"Doctor," he looks at the I.D. card clipped to the doctors pocket, "…Kain. I don't discuss my process."

Doctor Kain nods curtly and flicks his eyes back to the stasis box. Having worked with the child closely, Kain knew quite a bit about her and her unique talents and abilities. How he'd managed to subdue her was beyond him. She was a force to be reckoned with. Whatever this Locus chap had done, it had truly stumped her amazing mind and he'd walked away with not a scratch on him.

Kain makes some last minute checks to the environmental support program and steps back from the stasis box satisfied that everything is set correctly. He nods to the medical supervisors, who lift the large lid to the box into place.

"Leave the box unlocked, I may need to check on her later." Kain says with a sigh.

"_Wo bu hui zuo ruguo wo shi ni._" Locus says softly.

"Why ever not?"

"Boxes have a habit of being opened before the big day."

"You make her sound like some sort of Christmas present."

"Oh trust me, Doctor. She is a gift to the Alliance." Locus replies coldly.

Kain shivers, the man was creepy, there was no other word to describe the Alliance Officer. He made the doctor very uncomfortable. Just the way he looked at you was enough to give you nightmares for a week.

Kain nods at his supervisors to do as the Alliance berk had said. The box locks with a single loud click. Locus smiles one of those chillingly serene smiles. The Doctor shifts away from him cautiously and checks the data pad in his hands. It shows a biometrical scan of River and shows her heart rate, oxygen levels and her brain waves. Everything seems to be in order so Kain turns to leave. Locus stays exactly where he is staring at the box. Kain looks round as he opens the door.

"You can stand down now, sir." Kain says nonchalantly.

"No, no Doctor, my job is not over until she is safely on that Medical Transporter."

"But that's hours away."

"And in a few hours I will stand down." Locus replies calmly.

Kain rolls his eyes and leaves him to it. All Kain wants to do is get a little sleep and maybe something to eat before his next shift change. Let the idiot stand there, Kain hoped that he'd get sciatica.

* * *

_Transporter: Passenger Bunk_

Kain enters his room and slides the large metal door closed, shutting out the sounds of the noisy mess hall that is just down the corridor from him. He puts the data pad on it's stand and a little battery symbol begins to fill in the top corner. Kain sighs and pulls his gown off throwing it onto a chair in the corner of the room. Underneath he is wearing a pale blue t-shirt and a pair of faded jeans. He collapses onto his bed and pulls his glasses off, rubbing his face with his hands.

He looks up at the rough steel gray ceiling and slips into his own little world of thoughts. Right now he could be with his daughter in Capital City, playing in the park, feeding the ducks. But instead he was stuck on some junker in the back-of-beyond. He could be relaxing at home with a cold beer on the first weekend in months where he's not been on call, having dinner with his beautiful wife, Solana.

The head of the operation had requested Kain personally, after all he had high recontaminations from The Academy after working with them for four years before heading back to the hospital where he had done his training to got back to being, as he put it 'a proper doctor'.

The money at the academy had been amazing, it had been enough to buy a large house in Capital City and there was more than enough to send his daughter to the best school in the 'Verse. But once River Tam had escaped he'd had second thoughts about his job. Was what they were doing to these people at all ethical? Yes the subjects were being treated to better understand how they were like they were. So soon after River's disappearance he made a decision to work for the good of the patient and actually stick to his Hippocratic Oath.

At first he flatly refused to return to the Academy, his days of field operations were over. However, once he heard that River Tam was the target of the operation, he jumped at the chance to be Lead Medical Official. The girl was amazing, he had seen her working first hand. She was graceful, clever, not just clever an absolute genius. No wonder the Alliance wanted her back. And truth be told he hadn't quite lost his fascination for the girl and her extraordinary powers of the mind and body. The data pad beeps several times and Kain snaps his eyes open and looks over at it curiously.

"Glasses." he mutters searching blindly around him for them.

He shoves them onto his face roughly and walks over to the data pad, a frown forming on his face. He picks it up and studies it carefully. This couldn't be right, in fact what he was seeing was damn near impossible. He slides his finger along the screen, the screen changes from a biometrical scan of the girl to a scan of just her brain. The brainwaves before him told him that she was awake. Wide awake. But… she'd been given tranquilizers to keep her immobile, and more importantly asleep during transit. His mind immediately jumps to that shady Locus character. He was up to something.


	10. Chapter 9: What Should Be Left Unspoken

**Chapter Nine**  
- What Should Be Left Unspoken -

_Serenity: Cargo Bay_

Kaylee is wiping down the outside of the stasis box where, during the months it's been in storage, it's gathered a layer of dust and sand. She hums a solemn tune as she does it trying to keep her mind off things. She buffs the control panel to make it shine and jumps back as the box begins to emanate a loud beeping sound. She begins to press other buttons, trying to shut the noise off but it just gets louder. Simon walks through from the med bay and when he hears the beeping sound he frowns and runs towards the box. He pulls Kaylee back and presses a few buttons, shutting the beeping off. Kaylee wrings the cloth she was using to clean the box in her hands.

"What did I do?" she asks timidly.

"You nearly set the self destruct off." Simon replies, pressing more buttons.

"It can do that?" Kaylee asks in a horrified tone, her eyes wide as sauces.

"You idiot, you nearly destroyed the whole damn plan. Just stay out of my way, I don't want to see you!" Simon yells.

Kaylee steps back, shocked and tears welling in her eyes. He's upset her a fair few times but never has he been so vindictive as his is now. Simon glares at her angrily and she begins to back away from him, tears rolling down her mucky cheeks. His face softens as she drops her gaze and runs towards her room. He sighs and closes his eyes, when he opens them again, his own eyes are filled with tears. He turn backs to the stasis box and slams the palm of his hand onto his forehead letting it slide down his face until he's rubbing his aching temples with thumb and forefinger.

Jayne, who was idly listening to the exchange from the door of the cargo bay walks across and with a furrowed brow barges into the young doctor deliberately.

"You yell at Kaylee like that 'gain and I'll knock a fair few brain cells out of that pretty boy head of yours." he growls menacingly.

"I don't have the will to be scared of you and your petty threats right now. Can we pick this up at a later date?" Simon says shaking his head miserably at Jayne.

He storms past the confused looking merc who watches him go, his mouth hanging open in hope of a retort that never comes.

* * *

_Serenity: Kaylee's Bunk_

Kaylee makes her way down into her bunk, the tears in her eyes making her vision blurry. She sinks onto her bed and buries her head in her hands. She sobs miserably for a few moments, her breathing harsh and sharp. She calms herself down and tries to take a deep breath.

It wasn't as if it was really his fault that he was snapping at her, after all his sister had just been taken by the Alliance, he wasn't really thinking before he spoke. But his tone of voice had shocked her and with the amount of pressure she had on her at the moment, she had truly taken his words to heart. She was so angry she could spit.

There's a knock on her bunk door and someone descends the ladder into her tiny room. It's Simon. Kaylee turns her face away from him, trying to hide her puffy eyes, rubbing them to remove the last trace of tears. Simon stands quietly by the bottom of the ladder, unable to think of what to say, opening his mouth and closing it several times. Kaylee takes a deep breath and looks over at him, her face as calm as she can muster.

"You gonna tell me what you're wantin', or you just gonna stand there like a goldfish flappin' its mouth?" she asks a waver in her voice.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped at you. I-"

"I don't wanna hear it Simon, forget 'bout it. Trust me, after we get your sister back, me and you'll be havin' words." Kaylee replies folding her arms and moving past the forlorn looking Simon.

She hikes up the ladder leaving Simon behind.

* * *

_Serenity: Bridge Hall_

Kaylee storms down the hallway, her footfalls making the metal grill flooring rattle loudly. She barges right past Mal who was on his way up to the bridge to check on Wash and how they were doing time wise.

"Hey, Kaylee, what's up?" he asks.

Kaylee just holds up her index finger and carries on walking without a word. He frowns deeply, since when had people decided to ignore him on his own gorramn ship? Only he wouldn't have minded some sort of memo slipped through his door, or at least a note on the fridge.

Simon makes his way out of Kaylee's room, his face ashen, and walks right past Mal without a word, doing an even better job of ignoring him than Kaylee did.

"Hey I'm not standin' here for the good of my health you know… what the hell is goin' on?" Mal demands his frown deepening and his hands now hooked into his belt.

Simon turns to him and shakes his head.

"It's nothing…" he replies trailing off.

"Better be the last nothing, I don't want arguments on my ship, bringin' up a storm in a teacup. Not at a time like this."

"It won't happen again." Simon says in a small voice.

"It's better not, this plan has gotta run smooth cause once that transporters on its way, we've passed our chance, _dong ma?_ I already got a sulky doctor, I don't need a sullen mechanic to gum up the workin's too, cause this whole idea goes down the pan if she ain't bringin' her A-game."

"Why are you even doing this?" Simon asks after a long pause in which he looks Mal up and down carefully.

Mal frowns looking at the doctor with a mixture of surprise and puzzlement. Why was he doing this? He was risking everything, his freedom, his boat, his crew. Truth be told, and he wasn't going to let Simon in on this, he didn't like the kid to be so gorramn unhappy. There was no way he'd rest without his sister and if he carried on after her, he's be taking a dirt nap within the month. Mal settles his eyes on Simon's pale face.

"If it means I can rub the Allience up the wrong way, do a little point scorin' of my own, I'm more'n willin to do so." he lies with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders.

Mal gives Simon a sharp nod and continues his way up to the bridge leaving the doctor to think what he will.

* * *

_Serenity: Bridge_

Wash is calmly piloting the ship, one eye on the scanner the other on the vast expanse of the Black before him. The only way to tell that he's unsettled by the whole fiasco is by the thin furrows of worry on his forehead. Mal takes his usual position behind the pilot, one hand on the back of the chair, the other leaning on the console, his eyes on the scanner.

"How we doing?" he asks as Wash makes an adjustment to one of the outboard sensors.

"We're doing good, recon we'll have caught up with it in a few hours, give or take. Everythin' okay with Kaylee and the doc? I heard them yellin' at each other… it's not like them, either of them." Wash replies.

"First time for everythin'. They'll patch things up," Mal shrugs, "That's good time you're makin'. Now you know the drill right?"

"We leave Serenity in orbit of the little moon here," he points at a map on one of the many screens, "I pilot Jayne, Zoe, Simon and you in the box, over to the medical Transporter here. Meanwhile, Kaylee will rig up an Alliance distress beacon, you know one of them crybaby's she built a while back, which will activate when you hit the little button on you box that'll send her a signal telling her that you've located River and you're ready to be picked up. Kaylee'll then guide Serenity in towards the Transporter askin' if there is anything we can do to help, usin' his Shepherd Book's mysterious ID and we sneak you back onto the ship. Easy as lyin'!"

Mal nods and smiles to himself, happy with the plan. Why shouldn't he be? It was his plan.

"Keep us flyin' straight, Wash, I gotta young mechanic I need to set in place." he mutters already leaving his pilot behind.

* * *

_Serenity: Inara's Shuttle_

Kaylee is sat in a huff on the plush cushions of the large seating area inside the shuttle. She sits cross legged her elbows on her chin and her head leading on an open palm.

"…I can understand why he's all upset and all, just… why'd he have to go a yellin' at me?" she continues, finding it hard to keep the hurt out of her voice.

Inara pours her a cup of tea and passes it over, sitting next to her friend and placing a consoling hand on her shoulder.

"Just when did things with boys get so tricky…" Kaylee sighs, sipping her tea.

Inara can't help but laugh a little and Kaylee looks at her reproachfully.

"It's always been tricky, _mei mei_, and as long as men stay as ignorant and narrow-minded as they are they will always be tricky." Inara replies with a warm smile.

"But you don't have any problems, s'pose you're used to men showin' affection to you in a weird way, your line a work." Kaylee shrugs.

"Oh, trust me, Kaylee. There are men out there I wouldn't even know where to begin with, Simon would be one of them."

"I suppose it begins with you takin' a nice large fee from their bank accounts." comes a voice from the door to the shuttle.

Kaylee jumps, slopping tea onto her overalls. Inara however just gracefully turns her head and glares at the owner of the voice. Mal is leaning against the wall listening into the girls conversation.

"Mind if I talk to my mechanic?" he asks a blasé tone to his voice.

"Would you mind if you at least knocked before you came barging into my shuttle?" Inara replies icily.

"You ever get tired of playin' the same old record?"

"Not nearly as much as I get tired of you playing the fallen hero." Inara snaps back.

There's a silence between them and for a second it looks like there's going to be words between them. Mal takes the high ground, ignoring her and his eyes swivel to Kaylee.

"You and that Doc keep rowing like that, Alliance'll hear us comin' miles off, make no mistake. You keep you're argufying to yourself while we do this job, then you can holler at each other 'til the cows come home. But I'd take delight if you didn't keep the whole ship entertained with your yellin', you make people jumpy." he says, his tone all macho and Captain like.

Kaylee glares at him, upset at the fact that she's just been told off in front of her best friend. Her cheeks flush and she storms past him into the cargo hold and heads for the engine room, bumping shoulders with Mal as she passes.

"Should be wastin' more time workin' than drinkin' tea." Mal calls to her.

Inara fixes Mal with a hard stare, one that any other person wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of.

"You really know how to motivate your crew." she says, ice in her tone.

Mal shrugs and moves further into the shuttle, something Inara glares harder at him for.

"Girl needed puttin' straight, this ain't no cats in the cradle milk run y'know." Mal shrugs.

"No it isn't, and that puzzles me somewhat. You're doing this without any monetary incentive, surely it can't be from the goodness of your own heart?"

"I not as black as you paint me."

"Really Mal, why are you doing this?" Inara asks seriously, fixing him with a look.

Mal sighs and sits himself down, cheekily helping himself to the brew on the table. He takes a long sip and pointedly looks at the seat beside him for Inara to sit down. With a sigh and a roll of her eyes she does so.

"Those people came onto my ship, attacked my crew and took a member of it. Okay, the kid muddy's the waters somewhat and we'd be better off without her. But nobody comes onto my ship and takes somethin' that ain't there's to take in the first place. Especially if that somethin' is human." Mal says taking another large swig of tea.

"That's actually quite noble, for you." Inara says with raised eyebrows.

"That's me. Not all business man all of the time y'know." Mal replies, jumping to his feet and striding to the door.

Inara also rises and clears her throat. Mal pauses in the shuttle door and looks at her expectantly.

"How much is he paying you?" she asks.

"Two thousand plat upfront then 10% off of his cut of the earnin's next six months." Mal replies with a lopsided smile.

Inara shakes her head as he leaves.


End file.
